Bengaluru, Mar 21: Ending suspense, the BJP gave tickets to all incumbent MPs, except Koppal’s Karadi Sanganna, in the first list of 21 candidates that was announced on Thursday.
It was speculated that some incumbents may be denied tickets, even as state president B S Yeddyurappa had asserted that all of them would be fielded again.
The party held back the declaration of candidates for seven remaining seats, including its bastion Bangalore South along with Koppal, Chikkodi, Kolar, Bangalore Rural, Raichur and Mandya.
In Bengaluru North, which was represented by late union minister HN Ananth Kumar (who passed away on 12 November 2018), the party will field his widow Tejaswini Ananthkumar.
The BJP Parliamentary Committee resolved to extend tickets to all the incumbents regardless of complaints by party leaders against their style of functioning in their respective constituencies.
After carefully reviewing the brewing dissent between two major factions of Karnataka BJP—one RSS man BL Santosh and another led by party president BS Yeddyurappa— the high command arrived at this unanimous decision, sources said.
Initially, it was reported that Shobha Karandlaje (Udupi-Chikmagalur), Suresh Angadi (Belgaum), Anantkumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada) and Karadi Sanganna (Koppal) will be deprived of the ticket for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
“If the party leaders were keen on dropping a few MPs from the list, then they should have dropped an equal number of candidates from both the factions. Striking a balance with both the warring groups and keeping the RSS functionaries in the loop, the party leaders have collectively resolved to extend tickets to all MPs,” the source said.
Party sources also said that Yeddyurappa had exerted pressure on the high command against dropping Ms Karandlaje, while Santhosh had suggested the high command not to drop Mr Kateel.
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