BJP finalises nominees for 21 LS seats in State

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday stopped short of announcing candidates for 21 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka.

A high level party meeting chaired by national president Rajnath Singh and attended by state leaders, decided to finalise candidates for the remaining seven constituencies after further discussion.  

While deciding to replace three sitting MPs from Shimoga, Bangalore North and Tumkur, the leaders will  again meet next week to decide the fate of three more sitting MPs from Raichur, Koppal and Bellary, represented by Sanna Fakirappa, Shivaramegowda and J Shantha. 

With the leaders divided on fielding these sitting members, no decision was taken. If the party fails to clinch a deal with BSR party led by B Sriramulu, then the saffron party would name its candidates for Bellary and Raichur seats.

From Shimoga constituency, the party decided to field former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, in place of his son and sitting member B Y Raghavendra.

From Bangalore North, former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashok will be fielded by replacing sitting MP D B Chandre Gowda. From Tumkur, the party favoured former MSIL chairperson M D Nandeesh or former Minister Sogadu Shivanna while denying ticket to sitting member G S Basavaraj.

Former chief minister Sadananda Gowda will contest from Udupi-Chikmagalur. The party is still scouting for candidates for Mandya, Hassan and Chikkaballapur seats.

Thursday’s meeting was attended by general secretary Ananth Kumar, state unit president Pralhad Joshi, senior leaders Yeddyurappa and Jagadish Shettar, among others. 

Next week’s meeting will finalise the candidates for remaining seven seats, a senior partyman told Deccan Herald.

Probables:

Following is the list of probables: Bagalkot (P C Gaddigoudar), Bangalore Central (P C Mohan), Bangalore Rural (P Muniraju), Bangalore South (H N Ananth Kumar), Bangalore North (R Ashok), Belgaum (Suresh Angadi), Bidar (Raghunath Malkapura), Bijapur (Ramesh Jigajinagi), Chamarajanagar (A R Krishnamurthy), Chikkaballapur (B N Bache Gowda/ Vivek Reddy); Chikkodi (Ramesh Katti), Chitradurga (Janardhana Swamy), Dakshina Kannada (Nalin Kumar Kateel), Davangere (G M Siddesh), Dharwad (Pralhad Joshi), Gulbarga (Revu Naik Belamagi), Haveri (Shivakumar Udasi), Kolar (Bethamangala Narayanaswamy), Mysore (Shobha Karandlaje), Udupi-Chikmagalur (D V Sadananda Gowda); Uttara Kannada (Ananth Kumar Hegde), Shimoga ( B S Yeddyurappa).