BJP names 72 candidates in first list for Assembly polls

The BJP's Central Election Committee on Sunday announced its first list of 72 candidates for the May 12 Assembly elections in Karnataka, where the saffron party hopes to return to power.

MP and state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa will contest from the Shikaripura Assembly constituency, while B Sriramulu, party MP from Ballari district, will be the candidate from Molakalmuru in Chitradurga district. The meeting, chaired by BJP president Amit Shah, was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar, BJP general secretary in-charge of the state P Muralidhar Rao and national joint organising secretary B L Santosh.

Yeddyurappa, Union Ministers in-charge of Karnataka Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal and state BJP organising secretary Arun Kumar also attended the meeting, which lasted for more than three hours.

Central election committee secretary J P Nadda released the list at a press conference here. Modi's campaigns in the state and the programmes of other Central leaders were discussed in the meeting. The issue of countering the Congress and JD(S) were also raised, sources said.