Somanna, Mohan in BJP second list

 The BJP on Tuesday announced its second list of 35 candidates for the Assembly polls, allotting the Vijayanagar constituency in Bangalore to Housing Minister V Somanna, while sitting MP from Bangalore Central, P C Mohan, will try his electoral fortunes from the Gandhinagar Assembly segment, where sitting Congress MLA Dinesh Gundu Rao is contesting.

The list was released after the BJP central election committee, headed by party national president Rajnath Singh, met in New Delhi. The party has already announced candidates for 140 constituencies in its first list.

The party is yet to finalise candidates for 49 seats.

Two sitting BBMP corporators figure in the second list. H Ravindra (Vijayanagar ward) and B V Ganesh (Chamarajpet ward) will contest from the Govindarajanagar and Chamarajpet Assembly constituencies, respectively.

Somanna, who had won the Govindarajanagar constituency on a Congress ticket in 2008, was defeated by Congress’ Priya Krishna in the bypolls held in the constituency in 2009. Somanna has now shifted to the neighbouring Vijayanagar constituency, where he will face sitting Congress MLA M Krishnappa.

The party has fielded H Ravindra (from Kuruba community) from Govindarajanagar owing to the large number of his community votes in the constituency, sources said. Bangalore City Mayor Venkatesh Murthy had also lobbied hard to get a ticket to contest from Govindarajanagar constituency, the sources said.

A novice in Shikaripur

The BJP has fielded political novice S H Manjunath against former chief minister and KJP president B S Yeddyurappa in Shikaripur. The party was keen to field Padmanabha Bhat, a contemporary of Yeddyurappa, as its candidate there.

However, Bhat is said to have declined the offer. Another young turk Hemanth Kumar Gowda has been fielded in Holenarasipur, where JD(S) H D Revanna is likely to contest.

The BJP, on Tuesday, also announced candidates in constituencies represented by former BJP legislators who have now joined the KJP or the JD(S).

These include S M Veeresh (Harihar), Thippanna R Naik (Lingsugur), H S Shivakumar (Channagiri), Dr H P Rajkumar (Honnali). These constituencies were represented by B P Harish, Manappa Vajjal, Madal Virupakshappa and M P Renukacharya, respectively.

Sitting MLA Belur Gopalakrishna has been denied a ticket in Sagar, with the party deciding to field Sharavathi Rao from the constituency.

The BJP is yet to decide whether it will re-nominate those facing serious corruption charges.

The second list does not have the names of sitting MLAs Katta Subramanya Naidu, Krishnaiah Setty and Y Sampangi nor have alternative candidates been announced in their constituencies. While Sampangi has been convicted by a Lokayukta court, Naidu and Setty were in judicial custody for different periods, with the trials against them yet to be completed. All the three are out on bail.