Another BSY aide fails to get BJP ticket

Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, who succeeded in getting the BJP ticket for his three close aides to contest the Lok Sabha polls, has failed to secure one for his loyalist Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli for the Bidar seat.

According to party insiders, Yeddyurappa had promised former minister Gurupadappa that he would get a ticket for his son Suryakanth Nagamarapalli to fight the polls from the Bidar constituency. It was on this assurance that Gurupadappa, who was in two minds on returning to the BJP, agreed to join the saffron fold, making the merger of KJP-BJP possible. Both Yeddyurappa and Gurupadappa had won the 2013 Assembly polls on KJP tickets.

Party sources said though the State unit proposed Suryakanth’s name, the central leadership had rejected it, as it had received adverse reports about his public image. Yeddyurappa tried to intervene but to no avail. The central leadership wanted Gurupadappa himself to contest from Bidar, but the affluent Lingayat leader is said to have declined the offer.

The ticket has now been given to local leader Bhagwant Khuba who will be taking on former chief minister Dharam Singh of the Congress.

The BJP leadership also confirmed the Bellary seat for former minister B Sriramulu and the Hassan seat for former MP C H Vijayashankar.

Sriramulu’s candidature was kept pending for some days following senior leader Sushma Swaraj’s opposition to his return to the BJP. Vijayashankar had initially declined to contest from Hassan, instead seeking a ticket from his home turf Mysore.
However, Vijayashankar toed the party line after being told firmly by the party leadership to abide by the decision taken by the central election committee.

A day after announcing that he would follow the party diktat, he landed in Hassan to hold meetings with the party workers. He is scheduled to file his nomination on March 24.

Vijayashankar was upset with the party because it fielded journalist Pratap Simha from Mysore. He had aired his opposition to Simha’s candidature in the media as well as the party forum. But the party did not budge. Vijayashankar faces former prime minister H D Deve Gowda in Hassan.