After what seemed like a long wait, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday night released its first list of 189 candidates for the Karnataka Assembly elections, betting high on new faces as it faces a tough battle owing to mounting anti-incumbency.
The BJP has fielded 52 new faces, including those who replace nine sitting MLAs. Fisheries Minister S Angara from Sullia and Udupi MLA Raghupathi Bhat did not get the tickets.
The list also had 32 names from the OBC community, 30 from the Scheduled Caste, 16 names from the Scheduled Tribes and eight women.
In Bengaluru, former police commissioner Bhaskar Rao is the BJP candidate from Chamarajpet. Contrary to speculation, senior MLA S Suresh Kumar has been renominated from Rajajinagar. The first list, however, does not contain Somanna’s seat Govindarajanagar and Mahadevapura represented by former minister Aravind Limbavali.
According to sources, the BJP is trying to follow three broad principles in choosing candidates: replace those who have enjoyed senior positions and are nearing retirement, asking fathers to withdraw from the fray if they want tickets for their children, and avoid those facing charges of corruption and sexual misconduct. Based on this, some more sitting MLAs may not get tickets.
The BJP list dominated by Lingayat and Vokkaliga candidates - was finalised after several days of back-to-back meetings. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan - he supervises the BJP’s election effort in Karnataka - said the list is based on “detailed political analysis”.
Singh added that the list also had candidates with high professional achievements, with five advocates, nine doctors, three academics, one retd IAS officer and retired IPS each. Among the 189 names, 31 were post-graduates and three retired government employees. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that since Karnataka was a state of “intellectual leadership”, the party wanted to field peppy with more academic achievements.
Sources said that the BJP’s list was delayed as it was waiting for a nod from PM Modi; a meeting of the party’s top election committee was held on April 9 with the attendance of union home minister Amit Shah, union defence minister Rajnath Singh, former Karnataka CM BS Yedyurappa, and CM Basavaraj Bommai. Yedyurappa left for Bangalore on Tuesday even as meetings between Shah and party president JP Nadda continued. The only next list will be out within the next four-five days, said the BJP.
BJP leaders involved in the process said that there was consensus on over 160 names but that there were certain disagreements over the last few names. The strategy now, the leader said, is to field the prime minister as many times as possible. “We could not have expected the same mandate with the same old names. Newer faces will be the party’s future,” the leader said.
Pradhan said that the list has representation from all sections. An example of that was the ticket to Bhagirathi Murulya from Dakshina Kannada’s Sullia reserved seat, over regional heavyweight and minister Angara S.
The party’s ticket distribution, a repeat from what it did in states like Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, has angered several leaders with followers of senior faces like KS Eashwarappa and former deputy chief minister Jagdish Shettar holding demonstrations. There were also murmurs that V Somanna, who has been fielded against former CM Siddharamaiah from the Varuna seat, expressed reservations. He has been fielded from a second seat Chamarajpet, and in the list of 189 names, is the only second person fighting from two seats — the other is R Ashok who’s taking on Congress’s other heavyweight DK Shivakumar at Kanakpura, who’s also fighting from Padmanabhanagar.
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