BJP on Tuesday released the first list of candidates for 189 seats out of 224 seats for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections with 52 new candidates getting tickets, the party confirmed in a press conference.
While addressing the press conference BJP's National General Secretary Arun Singh said, "Today we have released the list of 189 candidates. 52 out of 189 are fresh candidates".
"52 new faces, 8 women, 9 doctors, 5 lawyers, one retired IPS officer, three retired government employees, and 8 social activists have been given tickets," he added. He further mentioned that Vijayendra who is the son of former Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa has also been given the ticket.
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"Yeddyurappa's son Vijayendra has been given the ticket in his place. Ministers- Shashikala Jolle, R Ashok, Prabhu Chauhan, Shankar Muniyakappa, Munirathna, ST Somashekar, VC Patil, Varity Vasuraj, Murgesh Nirani, CC Patil, Sunil Kumar, Shivaram Hebbar have been given tickets.
"Vishweshwar Hegde (Speaker) has been given the ticket. V Somanna MLA from Govindraj Nagar has been given a ticket from Chamaraja Nagar and Varuna Assembly constituency. It will directly challenge Congress leader Siddaramaiah," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"Vishweshwar Hegde (Speaker) has been given the ticket. V Somanna MLA from Govindraj Nagar has been given a ticket from Chamaraja Nagar and Varuna Assembly constituency. It will directly challenge Congress leader Siddaramaiah," he added.
{{/usCountry}}In this list, tickets have been given to Lingayat-51, Vokkalinga-41, Kuruba-7, SC-30, ST-16 and 32 from the OBC community.
"Let us tell you that according to the released list, the tickets of Kumaraswamy, Jagadish Shettar, Eshwarappa and Arvind Limbavali etc are still pending," he said.
In this regard, BJP leader Arun Singh took to Twitter and said, "Today BJP Karnataka has declared candidates for 189 constituencies, including professionals, educationists, social workers, 52 new faces representing various constituencies of Karnataka. This indicates that our party will have a different and once again a double-engine government.
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BJP party sources also mentioned that former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar has started showing a rebellious attitude and has been called to Delhi.
"Former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar has started showing a rebellious attitude. In fact, the party's high command is not in favour of fielding him, but Shettar does not agree. He has been called to Delhi," party sources said.
"Jagdish Shettar will be asked to work for the party. It is unlikely he will get a ticket for the upcoming elections," party sources added.
BJP sources also mentioned that the wife of the late union minister Ananth Kumar will not get a ticket in the upcoming elections.
"No ticket will be given to Tejaswini Ananth Kumar but she may be given a larger role in the organisation in the time to come," party sources said.
The Karnataka assembly elections will be held in a single phase on May 10, with the counting of votes scheduled on May 13.