AMN / WEB DESK
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today released first list of 189 candidates. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will contest the Shiggaon Assembly seat and national general secretary of BJP CT Ravi will fight for the Chikmagluru seat. The announcement comes after the party’s Central Election Committee and Parliamentary Board meeting concluded on Sunday and then again deliberated over certain names on Monday.
There are 52 fresh candidates in BJP’s first list for the Karnataka election. As many as 32 OBC candidates, 30 SC candidates, and 16 ST candidates, were given tickets. “There are doctors, IPS and IAS officers, 31 PG candidates, and eight women. There are five advocates, nine doctors, three academicians, two retired IAS and IPS officers, three retired government employees, and eight social workers in this list,” said BJP’s national general secretary Arun Singh.
Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka has pitted against Congress president DK Shivakumar on the Kanakpura seat. BJP has fielded Housing and Infrastructure Development V Somanna against Congress’s Siddaramaiah in Varuna. Somanna will also contest the Chamrajnagar seat.
The meeting, which went for over three hours at the party headquarters, was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, party president JP Nadda, among other members of the CEC including Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai from the state of the leadership deliberated on the names of the probable candidates.
Earlier, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai had said that there is no question of Congress coming back to power and BJP will get an absolute majority in the state.
“Congress says they will take back the reservation, which we have announced. There is no question of them (congress) coming to power,” he said. “The double-engine government has done a good job in terms of infrastructure and others. People cutting across all sections have shown a great deal of support. I am sure that on May 13, BJP will get an absolute majority,” he added. The Karnataka assembly elections will be held in a single phase on May 10, with the counting of votes scheduled on May 13.