BENGALURU: The BJP on Wednesday evening announced its second list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha election which includes 72 names from 12 states. The party has named 21 candidates in Karnataka while the remaining seven will be announced later.
There were some surprises in the choice of candidates in the state with some new faces making the cut while some oldtimers have been left out. As widely speculated, Pratap Simha has been dropped from the Mysuru-Kodagu seat while the scion of the Mysuru royal family, Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wodeyar has been picked.
Scotching speculation, Union Minister of State Shobha Karandlaje has been moved to Bengaluru North while Kota Srinivasa Poojari, who is the leader of the opposition in the Legislative Council, will constest the Lok Sabha election from the Udupi- Chikkamagaluru seat.
Former director of the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology and Research, Dr C N Manjunath, will take on D K Suresh, the sitting MP and brother of KPCC president D K Shivakumar. Senior BJP leader V Somanna, who had faced severe drubbing from two constituencies in last year’s Assembly election, will contest the Lok Sabha election from Tumakuru while S Balaraj is the party’s choice from Chamarajanagar (SC) seat in place of veteran V Srinivasa Prasad.
Among other changes, Capt Brijesh Chowta has been fielded from Dakshina Kannada replacing former state president Nalin Kumar Kateel while former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will contest Haveri. Former minister B Sriramulu will contest from Ballari while Gayathri Siddeshwara will contest from Davanagere.
Seats where the candidates have remained unchanged include Annasaheb Shankar Jolle from Chikkodi. P C Gaddigoudar from Bagalkot, Ramesh Jigajinagi from Vijayapura, Dr Umesh G Jadhav from Gulbarga and Bhagwanth Kuba from Bidar.
Union Minister Pralhad Joshi will be contest from Dharwad while B Y Raghavendra has been fielded again from Shivamogga. P C Mohan will contest from Bengaluru Central while Tejasvi Surya will be constesting from Bengaluru South.
The party, which is fighting the election in alliance with the JD(S), is yet to decide on candidates for seven seats including Mandya, Raichur, Uttara Kannada, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Belagavi and Chitradurga.