It's official. Ashoka to contest from Bangalore North

Sadananda Gowda to contest from Mysore and Shobha from Udupi-C'magalur

The BJP state core-committee meeting on Thursday evening is said to have resolved the imbroglio in Bangalore North Lok Sabha constituency by finalising former deputy chief minister R Ashoka for the seat.

The RSS had recently intervened and instructed former chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda to contest from Mysore, Ashoka from Bangalore North and former minister Shobha Karandlaje from Udupi-Chickmagalur.

All the three had evinced interest to contest from Bangalore North and the allocation of constituencies to the trio was the RSS attempt to resolve the imbroglio.

Formula agreed

At the core-committee meeting on Thursday, Gowda and Ashoka are said to have agreed to the formula. However, lack of consensus in finalising candidates continues in Tumkur, Chamarajanar and Bidar.

Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa is said to have continued to insist that his candidate and sitting MP G S Basavaraj contest from Tumkur. Other top leaders including Pralhad Joshi and Ananth Kumar are opposing Basavaraj’s candidature and want former MSIL chairman M D Nandeesh to contest, the sources added.

In Bidar and Chamarajnagar, Yeddyurappa has sought that his candidates Suryakanth Nagamarapalli and S Balraj, respectively, be given the ticket, while the majority opinion in the party is Raghunathrao Malkapure and A R Krishnamurthy be allowed to contest.