Union Home Minister Amit Shah held High Level meeting with top party’s brass on wednesday, after the release of first list of candidates for upcoming Karnataka Assembly Elections.
The meeting was underway at Shah’s residence where BJP chief JP Nadda, party general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh, national general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan were present. According to sources, the meeting took place against the backdrop of displeasure by several Karnataka leaders after the first list of BJP candidates came out.According to BJP sources, former Karnataka Chief Minister and six-time BJP MLA Jagadish Shettar has started showing a rebellious attitude and has been called to Delhi. Shettar’s name was excluded in the first list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls.Shettar said that he will meet the party’s national president JP Nadda on Wednesday.
Addressing mediapersons in Bengaluru, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said,”189 candidates’ names have been declared. Consensus is there in almost all areas. Some people disagree (with the list) and a discussion will be done with them. I am in constant contact with them. I have spoken to Laxman Savadi (State Vice president) and asked him not to take any hasty decision,”.
BJP declared 189 candidates for Karnataka assembly polls as it sought to strike a balance in terms of representation of various castes and communities while putting up “strong candidates” against senior Congress leaders.Party sources said the list has 52 fresh faces and 21 sitting MLAs have been dropped.The polling will take place for 224 seats in the state assembly on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13.
With the party seen to have strong support among Lingayats, it has decided to give tickets to 51 members from the community. The list includes 32 candidates from the OBC community, 30 belonging to the Scheduled Castes and 16 to Scheduled Tribes.
Party sources said that candidates for the remaining 35 seats will be finalised by Wednesday afternoon.Among the prominent candidates declared by the party, BY Vijayendra, son of former Karnataka Chief Minister and BJP leader BS Yediyurappa, will contest from the Shikaripura seat.