The BJP on Wednesday released the party's second list of 23 candidates for the assembly elections in Karnataka. Nagaraja Chabbi, a Congress leader who recently joined BJP, will contest from Kalghatgi.
The second list comes just a day after the party released its first list of 189 candidates, with 52 new faces.
At least nine legislators including Ministers Angara (Sullia) and Anand Singh (Vijayanagara), have been dropped. The party announced that senior minister V Somanna would take on former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Varuna and R Ashoka will contest against Karnataka Congress chief Shivakumar in Kanakapura.
Somanna will also contest from Chamarajanagar, and Ashoka from Padmanabhanagar segments. Somanna belongs to the Lingayat community which has a large presence in Varuna, while Ashoka is seen as BJP's prominent Vokkaliga face.
Former Minister C P Yogeshwar would once again cross swords with Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy, a former Chief Minister, in Channapatna. In Kolar, the second seat from where Siddaramaiah is planning to contest, BJP has fielded Varthur Prakash, who had won twice from the segment as an independent.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has been fielded from his traditional Shiggaon constituency, while B Y Vijayendra would enter the fray from Shikaripura, the seat vacated by his father and former CM B S Yediyurappa, who has announced retirement from electoral politics.
In its first list, the party fielded nine doctors, five advocates, three academics, one retired IAS officer, one retired IPS officer, three retired government employees, and eight social activists. Out of 189 candidates, 32 belong to OBCs, 30 Scheduled Castes, and 16 Scheduled Tribes. There were 8 women candidates in the first list.
PTI reported that among the candidates 51 are Lingayats and 41 are Vokkaligas, the two dominant communities in Karnataka. In Vijayanagara, the ruling party has given ticket to Siddharth Singh instead of his father and minister Anand Singh. In Athani, the BJP has denied ticket to former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi. This time, the party has fielded Mahesh Kumathalli, who had helped the party form government in 2019, by defecting from the Congress.
Former Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao is the BJP candidate from Chamarajpet, while former IAS officer B H Anil Kumar will take on senior Congressman and former Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara in Koratagere. In Belagavi district former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, who had helped engineer the 2019 defections, has got a ticket from Gokak. He has also managed to secure tickets for his brother Balachandra Jarkiholi from Arabhavi and close confidant Mahesh Kumathalli from Athani.
Two members from the late Minister Umesh Katti’s family - brother Ramesh Katti and son Nikhil Katti - got tickets from Chikkodi Sadalga and Hukkeri respectively, while Ratna Vishwanath Mamani, wife of late Deputy Speaker of Karnataka Assembly Vishwanath Chandrashekar Mamani has got ticket from Saundatti Yellamma segment.
(With inputs from PTI)