Bengaluru: After days of suspense, the BJP finally released its first list of 184 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Two former Congressmen have found place in the list, which was released on Thursday evening.
The party has chosen A Manju, an influential minister in the previous Siddaramaiah government, to contest against JDS Prajwal Revanna, the grandson and heir of former prime minister and JDS patriarch HD Deve Gowda. Revanna's father HD Revanna is also a sitting MLA from the same Hassan district. Manju had lost the Assembly elections from the same district.
Another noteworthy turncoat is Umesh Jadhav, who is being fielded from Kalburgi district against the leader of the opposition and perhaps Congress's most known face in Karnataka, Mallikarjun Kharge.
Another interesting factor in the BJP’s choice of candidates is that of Dr Devendrappa from Bellary. This district is infamous for the mining scam and the influential Reddy brothers.
What's surprising is that the candidate for Bangalore South has not been announced. It was assumed that Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, the widow of former union minister Ananth Kumar, would be fielded from there. But while the party has even announced candidates for a few seats of the third phase, Bangalore South, which goes to polls in the second phase, has been left out. The filing of nominations has already begun for this phase and ends on March 26.
The candidature of others such as union minister Sadananda Gowda from Bangalore North, B Y Raghavendra, son of BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa, from Shivamogga, has been done on predictable lines.
The Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases starting April 11. The polling in Karnataka will be in two phases on April 18 and 23. The votes will be counted on May 23.
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