Bengaluru, Aug 5: The Bharatiya Janata Party released its first list of 96 candidates for the BBMP elections late on Tuesday night after differences and ego clashes among senior leaders delayed the announcement through the day.
Though the party had finalized the list earlier, it couldn't announce the names then. It is yet to finalize candidates for 102 wards.
The party is reportedly facing trouble from senior leaders, particularly former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, who wants tickets for his supporters.
Party sources said Yeddyurappa wanted 20 tickets for his supporters, who were with him in the KJP, a party he had floated after quitting the BJP in 2012.
This forced former R Ashoka to approach Union minister H N Ananth Kumar to sort out the differences. Kumar held an extended meeting at the party offic e on Tuesday.
While loyal workers are aspiring for tickets, party insiders said senior leaders are rooting for their supporters. A senior BJP leader exchanged heated words with Ashoka when the latter refused to name his supporters in the list.
Party leaders are upset because the wives of former corporators are being accommodated and also those who quit another party to join the BJP are being preferred. Dissent is also brewing in the Congress, with rumours of muscle power, money and nepotism doing the rounds.
Cong chalks out plans
On the other hand Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G Parameshwara on Tuesday convened a meeting with the ministers who are also acting as the party observers for each of the 28 Assembly constituencies. The ministers are learnt to have apprised the president on the party’s prospects in their constituencies and discussed issues that need to be sorted out before the elections.
Sources said the party was planning to release its first list of candidates on August 6, when the first meeting of the screening committee is scheduled to be held. The committee will be headed by Parameshwara and comprises Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, ministers from Bengaluru and some senior party leaders. The panel is likely to announce candidates for about 100 wards, including those represented by the party corporators in the recently-dissolved BBMP council.
Sources said many of the observers, appointed to sift through the applications seeking party tickets, had already submitted their reports. The observers had been tasked with holding consultations with the block-level workers and shortlisting names of probable candidates. The party has received about 1,300 applications seeking tickets to contest the polls, the sources said.
The KPCC chief is learnt to have directed all the observers to submit the reports by Wednesday evening. The party has taken the elections seriously. All ministers have been told to shelve their work and focus on the polls in the constituencies assigned to them. Efforts should be made to ensure that the party activists work unitedly during the polls, Parameshwara is learnt to have said.
The ministers have been directed to camp in the constituency assigned to them till the elections are over. Five ministers from Bengaluru – Ramalinga Reddy, K J George, Roshan Baig, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Krishna Byre Gowda – have been told to coordinate with other ministers and ensure success of the party.
The KPCC has set up the manifesto committee to prepare a draft of the manifesto. Senior leaders K R Ramesh Kumar, B L Shankar, five ministers from Bengaluru are its members, the sources said.
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