Parties roll out first lists of candidates
Mangaloretoday/PTI
Bangalore, April 6,2013: The Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) on Friday announced their first lists of candidates for the May 5 Assembly elections.
The BJP and the Congress have not allotted tickets to leaders facing serious corruption charges. They have also not named candidates for constituencies where there are multiple contenders.
All prominent sitting MLAs, including Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, Deputy Chief Ministers K S Eshwarappa and R Ashoka and Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah, Congress state unit president G Parameshwara, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, former ministers H K Patil and R V Deshpande, JD-S state unit president and Lok Sabha member H D Kumaraswamy and MP N Cheluvaryaaswamy, will contest the elections.
The Congress has announced candidates for 177 Assembly constituencies, the BJP 140 seats and the JD-S 122 seats. The total number of constituencies is 224. All parties will have to announce their candidates before April 17, the last day for filing nominations. The Congress released to the media the candidates’ list late in the evening, minutes after the BJP’s Ananth Kumar announced his party’s nominees in New Delhi.
Kumaraswamy released the list at a press conference in Bangalore.
The BJP played it safe by giving tickets to a majority of the sitting legislators but deferred announcing re-nomination of those who are facing serious corruption charges.
Sitting MLAs Katta Subramanya Naidu, Krishnaiah Setty and Y Sampangi do not figure in the first list. The BJP has also not announced any alternative candidates for these leaders in the constituencies presently represented by them.
In Bangalore, the BJP has not announced candidates for four constituencies. The party seems to be lenient towards legislators against whom private complaints have been filed in Lokayukta courts. They include K S Eshwarappa (Shimoga), R Ashoka (Padmanabhanagar), S R Vishwanath (Yelahanka), S Muniraju (Dasarahalli), C T Ravi (Chikmagalur), Murgesh Nirani (Bilagi) and Abhay Patil (Belgaum South).
The party has issued tickets to former Yeddyurappa loyalists Basavaraj Bommai, Umesh Katti and Murgesh Nirani. Nirani’s demand that he be given the Jamakhandi seat has been rejected. He has been asked to contest from Bilagi, his home turf. However, Somanna’s name has been left out.
Sitting legislators C C Patil, Lakshman Savadi and Krishna Palemar, who were caught in the infamous porngate episode, figure in the list. The Congress, which is facing severe infighting and too many ticket aspirants, has not announced candidates for many constituencies in Bangalore.
The nominees for 10 of the 28 constituencies in Bangalore are yet to be announced. The party has finalised the nominees for Hebbal, Malleshwaram, Jayanagar, Padmanabhanagar, Bangalore South, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Vasanthpura, KR Puram, Mahadevpura and CV Raman Nagar. But it has not announced the names of the candidates.
The Congress has conceded the request of cine star and former Union minister Ambareesh to contest from Mandya instead of Srirangapattana.
Congress leader S M Krishna was planning to field Kalapan Siddarajau, who quit as the JD-S legislator, from Maddur. But the party has chosen Madhu Madegowda as the candidate.
Former minister B L Shankar will contest from Dasarahalli. Prof B K Chandrashekar will test his electoral fortune from Basavanagudi.
The party has chosen State Congress women’s unit president Manjula Naidu over former MLC Rani Satish for Rajajinagar. Siddaramaiah is contesting from Varuna.
The Congress has also not shied away from renominating D K Shivakumar (Kanakapura) and Baburao Chinchansoor (Gurumitkal), who is facing Lokayukta cases.
The Congress has so far not identified those who indulged in cross-voting during the last MLCs’ elections. But, sources said those who violated the party norms have also been favoured by giving ticket.
The Congress has disappointed former BJP legislators who were eagerly awaiting tickets.
The party has refrained from giving ticket to children of senior Congress leaders