Yeddy will contest from Shimoga
Former Karnataka CM Sadananda Gowda and Ananth Kumar will also be contesting.
The Bharatiya Janata Party declared the candidature of former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa from the Shimoga constituency, along with 51 others, for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, on Saturday.
With Yeddyurappa back at the helm of party affairs in Karnataka, the BJP hopes to “correct” its mistake of losing him during the last year’s state Assembly elections, which resulted in party failing to come to power. Yeddyurappa, who comes from the Lingayat community, has a considerable support base. It was because of him that the BJP could come to power for the first time in a southern state in 2008.
On 27 February, the BJP had released names of 54 candidates in its first list. Party general secretary Ananth Kumar said the next list would be released on 13 March. The second list covers states like Karnataka, Orissa, Tripura, Kerala, Assam and West Bengal. Other prominent leaders given tickets are another former Karnataka CM D. V. Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North), party general secretary Ananth Kumar (Bangalore South) and journalist-turned-politician Chandan Mitra (Hoogly, West Bengal). The list was finalised by the party’s Central Election Committee, headed by BJP president Rajnath Singh and attended by Narendra Modi, L. K. Advani and other top leaders. The party also finalised the list of its 57 candidates for Orissa Assembly elections. Orissa will have elections for its 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147-member Assembly in two phases on 10 and 17 April. The second list contains five candidates in Assam, 20 in Karnataka, three in Kerala, five in Orissa, two in Tripura and 17 in West Bengal. With the second list, the BJP has so far finalised a total of 106 candidates. Among the five candidates finalised in Assam are sitting MPs Bijoya Chakraborty (Guwahati), Ramesh Deka (Mangaldoi) and Rajen Gohain (Nowgong), besides state president Sarbananda Sonowal from Lakhimpur and state vice president Kamakhaya Prasad Tasa from Jorhat.