NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday reached BJP national president J P Nadda’s residence in the national capital for a parliamentary board meeting of the party to discuss and finalise the list of candidates for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly polls.
Karnataka BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel, former Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and other leaders are also present at Nadda’s residence. According to sources, the party will hold its Central Election Committee meeting on Sunday.
Earlier speaking to reporters here on Saturday, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that a discussion on candidate selection for the 224 Assembly constituencies will take place in the core committe meeting of the BJP. “Today, an important meeting is to be held under the guidance of BJP national president JP Nadda. During this meeting, a discussion over candidate selection for 224 Assembly seats will be done. And tomorrow (Sunday) the parliamentary board of the party is also meeting”, the chief minister said.
On Friday, senior leader B S Yediyurappa had said that the party will soon finalise the list of candidates for the State Assembly elections. Since Karnataka is the only south Indian state where BJP is in power, It will launch a no-holds-barred campaign to retain the state. A BJP senior source said that the party is also planning carpet bombing in Karnataka.
“The names of 40 star campaigners have also been decided for Karnataka. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, former Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Goa CM Pramod Sawant, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and several Union ministers like Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Nirmala Sitharaman have been included in the list. All have been asked to give two weeks’ time in the poll-bound state,” he added.
Congress and Janata Dal-Secular have announced 166 and 93 candidates respectively so far for the Karnataka Assembly polls, But the BJP is yet to declare its candidates for the polls. The state will go to polls on May 10 and the votes will be counted on May 13. The term of the current Karnataka Legislative Assembly is set to end on May 24. (ANI)