LS polls: BJP appoints incharges for 28 seats

The state unit of the BJP on Wednesday announced the list of incharges (prabharis) and convenors (sanchalaks) to the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies ahead of the general elections.

While the party made the appointments in most states several months ago, the announcement comes last in Karnataka. Sources said the leaders had kept the decision pending owing to the Assembly elections in May, followed by the bypolls to five constituencies.

Careful enough not to violate the party rule, which stipulates the appointment of an outsider to a constituency, the BJP core committee headed by B S Yeddyurappa, however, has been strategic in picking leaders for each of the Lok Sabha segments.

Senior party leader and former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa, who is an MLA from Shivamogga, has been made incharge of the Mysore-Kodagu Lok Sabha segment.

Sources said the party thought that Eshwarappa was best placed to take on Congress leader Siddaramaiah, who hails from Mysuru. Both represent the Kuruba community.

The party has entrusted the responsibility of Bellary to former chief minister and Hubballi-Dharwad MLA Jagadish Shettar. B Sriramulu, a lackey of the influential Bellary Reddy brothers, was holding charge of the district until recently.

In the recent byelection to the Bellary Lok Sabha seat, though the BJP put up a strong fight against the Congress, Sriramulu lost the proxy war to Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar. Sriramulu is now in-charge of the Koppal Lok Sabha segment.

With the demise of Ananth Kumar, the party has entrusted the Bangalore South constituency to Kumar’s close aide Subba Narasimha, popularly known as Subbanna.

With his appointment as incharge, it seems like the decks have been cleared for Kumar’s wife Tejawaini’s entry into electoral politics. The party has appointed Padmanabhanagar MLA R Ashoka (another close aide of Kumar) as convenor of the constituency.

Mysore-Kodagu - K S Eshwarappa; Hassan - C T Ravi; Dakshina Kannada - Sunil Kumar; Udupi-Chikmagalur - Araga Jnanendra; Shimoga - Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri; Bellary - Jagadish Shettar; Tumkur - Aravind Limbavali; Bangalore Rural - Ashwathnarayana; Bangalore Central - Ashwathnarayana; Bangalore North - B H Krishna Reddy.