BJP defers decision on fielding BSY men

The BJP’s central election committee on Saturday deferred decision on fielding staunch followers of B S Yeddyurappa in the Lok Sabha elections, when it announced the first list of candidates for 20 constituencies from the State.

Yeddyurappa’s close aide Shobha Karandlaje is aspiring to contest from Udupi-Chikmagalur, while his followers G S Basavaraj and Bidar MLA Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli are seeking the ticket from Tumkur and Bidar parliamentary constituencies respectively. Basavaraj is also a sitting party MP from Tumkur. The party has not taken a final decision for these constituencies.

The party MLA C T Ravi wants to enter national politics and hence, has sought the ticket from Udupi-Chikmagalur. Nagamarapalli has urged the party to give the ticket either for his son Suryakanth or himself. Nagamarapalli was a KJP MLA before the recent merger of the party with BJP. Raghunath Rao Malkapure also wants to contest from the constituency. MLC D S Veeraiah, another Yeddyurappa supporter, has aspired to contest from Kolar. But former minister A Narayanaswamy is also seeking the ticket. Surprisingly, the party has given ticket to K Shivanagouda Naik from Raichur despite the fact that he, along with 10 other MLAs, had rebelled against the then BJP government in 2011 and threatened to topple it.

The party has given tickets to Shivakumar Udasi and Karadi Sanganna from Haveri and Koppal, respectively. Both were Yeddyurappa followers. Sitting party MP Shivaram Gouda was denied the ticket in order to accommodate Karadi in Koppal. The party is learnt to have gone by the winnability factor, while deciding on the candidates for these constituencies.

The party could not take a decision on the Bellary seat as there is a stiff resistance to field B Sriramulu of BSR Congress from a section of leaders, including Sushma Swaraj.

The party had recently given the green signal for the merger of the BSR Congress with the BJP. Sriramulu is a close associate of jailed former minister Janardhana Reddy.

Due to differences between the BJP and RSS leaders, the committee could not finalise candidates for some of these constituencies. The RSS is learnt to have suggested that a new face be fielded in Udupi-Chikmagalur and it is opposed to fielding Basavaraj in Tumkur.