MUMBAI: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will contest at least 40 seats in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections, party state president Hari R said on Saturday. He further said that four to five Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs were in touch with the NCP and are expected to join the party before the polls.
“We will fight in at least 40 seats in the upcoming elections. Four to five sitting MLAs of the BJP are in touch with us to join the party. A former mayor of Bengaluru may also join our party soon”, Hari R said.
Earlier on Saturday, NCP chief Sharad Pawar held a meeting of party leaders at the party office in Mumbai. During the 2018 polls, the NCP had contested 14 seats in Karnataka. The 224-seat Karnataka Assembly will go to polls on May 10, and the votes will be counted on May 13.
Recently, the Election Commission had downgraded the status of the NCP to a regional party, withdrawing its recognition as a national party.
Political parties in the state including the ruling BJP, Opposition Congress and JD(S) are engaged in a spate of allegations and counter-allegations, with the latter attempting to corner the government over the issue of corruption. Karnataka, which has 224 seats in the Assembly presently has 119 MLAs of the ruling BJP, while Congress has 75 and its ally JD(S) has 28 seats.
The BJP has announced the names of 189 candidates in the first list on April 11 and 23 candidates in the second list on April 12. The first list featured 52 fresh faces and eight women. A total of seen sitting MLAs could not make it to the second list. The names of the candidates for 12 constituencies are still to be declared by the BJP which includes constituencies of Hubli-Dharwad Central, Krishnaraja, Shivamogga, Mahadevpura, etc.
Meanwhile, displeasure by several Karnataka BJP leaders came out in the open after the party released the names of candidates. In a major blow to the ruling BJP ahead of the Karnataka polls, former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi joined the Congress party, after being denied a ticket by BJP.
Supporters of sitting BJP MLA from Belagavi North, Anil Benake staged a protest on Tuesday evening after he was denied a ticket in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections. Also, supporters of BJP MLA Mahadevappa Yadawad protested in Ramdurg constituency in Belagavi over the ticket being denied to him. (ANI)