BENGALURU: A little over 24 hours after announcing its first list of 189 candidates, BJP on Wednesday released a second list of 23 candidates. It denied tickets to seven sitting MLAs, including Channagiri MLA Madal Virupakshappa, who is in jail on charges of corruption. There are two women in the second list.
The party denied a ticket to MP Kumaraswamy, who was keen on contesting from Mudigere again. However, party workers and people of the constituency were unhappy with the MLA, who shrugged off the attacks by saying he was targeted because he is a Dalit. Other sitting MLAs who were denied tickets are: CM Nimbannavar (Kalaghatagi), SA Ravindranath (Davanagere North), Nehru Olekar (Haveri), N Lingana (Mayakonda), and Sukumar Shetty (Byndoor). With this, the number of sitting MLAs who have failed to get renominated rose to 18. The party also poured water on housing minister V Somanna’s wish to field his son Arun from Gubbi in Tumakuru district. But Arun is still in with a chance to land the ticket for Govindaraj Nagar, currently represented by Somanna. G Karunakar Reddy, the elder brother of mining baron Janardhana Reddy, was given the ticket for Harapanahalli seat, which he currently represents.
The party denied a ticket to MP Kumaraswamy, who was keen on contesting from Mudigere again. However, party workers and people of the constituency were unhappy with the MLA, who shrugged off the attacks by saying he was targeted because he is a Dalit. Other sitting MLAs who were denied tickets are: CM Nimbannavar (Kalaghatagi), SA Ravindranath (Davanagere North), Nehru Olekar (Haveri), N Lingana (Mayakonda), and Sukumar Shetty (Byndoor). With this, the number of sitting MLAs who have failed to get renominated rose to 18. The party also poured water on housing minister V Somanna’s wish to field his son Arun from Gubbi in Tumakuru district. But Arun is still in with a chance to land the ticket for Govindaraj Nagar, currently represented by Somanna. G Karunakar Reddy, the elder brother of mining baron Janardhana Reddy, was given the ticket for Harapanahalli seat, which he currently represents.
No mention of Hubballi seat
The list made no mention of the candidate for Hubballi seat, from where former CM Jagadish Shettar is hoping to recontest. Shettar has threatened to contest as an independent if he is not given a ticket. He met with party national president JP Nadda in Delhi earlier in the day.
With this list, the party has now announced candidates for 212 of the 224 seats. The final list of 12 can didates is likely to be released on Friday.Watch BJP releases second list of 23 candidates for Karnataka election 2023
