KJP 3rd list has no candidates in Nirani, Katti, Bommai seats

The trio after much dilly-dallying decided to remain with the BJP

The KJP on Sunday announced its third list of candidates for the May 5 Assembly polls but former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa stopped short of announcing candidates against his one-time loyalists - Murgesh Nirani, Basavaraj Bommai and Umesh Katti.

However, the party announced its candidate in Govindarajnagar where another of his loyalists V Somanna is likely to contest on the BJP ticket.

Yeddyurappa had anticipated that Nirani, Bommai and Katti would join the KJP. But the trio after much dilly-dallying announced that they would remain with the BJP and seek re-election from their constituencies of  Bilagi, Shiggaon and Hukkeri respectively. While Yeddyurappa did not elaborate on why he had not announced candidates in these constituencies in the third list, sources said he is scouting for strong candidates.

41 candidates announced

The 41 candidates announced on Sunday include former BJP MLCs Mohan Limbikai and Shivaraj Sajjan and former BJP MLA S V Ramachandra, who recently joined KJP.While Limbekai will contest on a KJP ticket from Hubli-Dharwad (West), Sajjan will contest from Byadagi Assembly constituency in Haveri district. Ramachandra will contest from his home turf of Jagalur constituency in Davangere district. 

Yeddyurappa announced that retired IAS officer S Puttaswamy will contest from Arakalgud. In all, the KJP has announced 143 candidates so far and the fourth list is likely to be released in the next three to four days.

Election manifesto

Speaking on the occasion, Yeddyurappa said the party’s election manifesto would be launched on April 10. He said the party would launch a pension scheme for farmers and also extend the Bhagyalakshmi scheme, presently confined to BPL families to the middle class.

Special cooperative banks for women to provide loans at low rate of interest would be opened, he said.