BJP battles infighting, many contenders as it prepares to finalise Assembly poll candidates

BENGALURU: The BJP, which is in the process of finalising its list of candidates for the Assembly election, seems to be facing trouble in its own strongholds in picking the nominees. While in some places, the sitting legislators are facing serious charges, the party has also to deal with infighting and lobbying for tickets and picking strong candidates.

The party has taken up a primaries-like voting for selection of candidates based on the opinions of local leaders, but is faced with myriad problems in many places including lack of strong candidates, allegations against sitting legislators, high number of aspirants.

Chickpet MLA Uday Garudachar.

In Bengaluru’s Chickpet, the party has to decide between Uday Garudachar and N R Ramesh while in Jayanagar, the choice is between Vivek Reddy and C K Ramamurthy. In Basavanagudi, it is Ravi Subramanya and Tejaswini Ananth Kumar. If V Somanna doesn’t contest from Govindaraj Nagar, the party will have to choose between Umesh Shetty and H Ravindra. In Chamarajpet, the choice is between Lahari Velu and Sunil Venkatesh. There is also a thinking of supporting ‘Silent’ Sunil as an Independent candidate. In Shivajinagar, the party will have to decide between Ruman Baig and M Sharavana.

In Shivamogga, the BJP will have to either pick K S Eshwarappa, his son Kantesh or Harikrishna. In Belagavi, where there are a large number of seats at stake, the party has to choose between Mahantesh Kavatagimath and Rajesh Nerali in Chikkodi, Shrimanth Patil and Sheetal Patil in Kagwad, Mahesh Kumathalli and Laxman Savadi in Athani, Maruthi Ashtagi and Basavaraj Hundri in Yamakanmaradi.

In Hukkeri, there is a plea to give the ticket to Nikhil Katti, son of late Rajya Sabha member Umesh Katti, while on the other hand, there is a demand to field a fresh face. Similar is the scene in Saundatti where there is a demand to give the ticket to a member of late Anand Mamani’s family while there is also a call for fielding a new face.

At Manvi in Raichur district, the BJP has to decide between Gangadhar Naik and Manappa Naik. In Channagiri of Davanagaere district, where sitting MLA Madal Virupakshappa and his son Prashanth Madal are in judicial custody in a corruption case, there is pressure to give the ticket to Virupakshappa’s other son Madal Mallikarjun while Shivakumar is also a strong contender. In Mayakonda, the choice will be between Basavaraj Nayak and D S Shyam while in Davanagere North, current MLA A Ravindranath may not be given the ticket due to the age factor and the choice will be between S T Veeresh and Lokikere Nagaraj.

In Dharwad, while there is a fight for the ticket, the party also faces anti-incumbency. In Dharward Rural, the party will have to decide between MLA Amrut Ayyappa Desai and Tanavappa Ashtagi while in Hubli Central, the contest is between former CM Jagadish Shettar and Jayatheertha Katti. In Haveri, while Neharu Olekar may be denied the ticket, a fresh face may be picked, while in Hanagal, the contest will be between Krishan Elageri, Rajashekar Kattegoudar and Shivaraj Sajjan.

The party also faces anti-incumbency in Chikkamagalur district and the choice for Mudigere will be between current MLA M P Kumaraswamy, Narendra and Vijaykumar. In Hosadurga of Chitradurga district, the party will have to go with Goolihatti Shekar while there is also a possibility of fielding a fresh candidate.

If V Somanna is fielded from Chamarajanagar district, he may face opposition from local leaders while in Hanur, it will be either Preetam Nagappa for Venkatesh.

In Kudligi of Ballari district, the party is looking for a suitable candidate after N Y Gopalakrishna’s exit while Bangari Hanamantha is a strong contender. In Vijayapura and Kalaburagi, the BJP has many contenders. In Nagathana, it will be Gopal Karjol versus Mahendra Kumar Naik, while in Basavana Bagewadi, the toss-up is between S K Bellubbi and Appugouda Patil. Similarly, in Babaleshwar, Umesh Kolakur and Vijaykumar Patil are contenders.

In Kalaburagi North, the party will have to make a choice between Chandu Patil and Shivakanth Mahajan while in Jewargi, it will be Doddappagouda Patil or Shivaraj Raddevadagi. Chittapur has two contenders, Sunil Valyapure and Manikanth Rathod. In Bagalkot, Veeranna Charanthimath, P H Poojar and Mallikarjun Charanthimath are in the race while in Badami, M K Pattanashetty and Mahantesh Mamadapura are the contenders.