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ShareBangalore: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, notwithstanding the turmoil within, appears to be the first to get off the block in the elections to 25 seats in the legislative council from local bodies constituencies.
With the polling scheduled for December 18, the ruling party has shortlisted candidates for nine seats. Tuesday is the last day for filing nominations.
The BJP's shortlisted candidates are Medappa (Kodagu); Shivaraj Sajjan (Dharwad); Srinivas Poojari (Udupi); Shashikant Akkappanayaka (Belgaum); DC Thammanna (Mandya); Shivananda Nayaka or Shubhalatha Asnotikar (Karwar); Subash Biradar or Amaranath Patil (Gulbarga); Chandrashekar Kallur or Shivananda Kamaratagi (Bijapur) and Shanta Veerappa Gowda (Shimoga).
The BJP election committee met in Bangalore under the chairmanship of state party head DV Sadananda Gowda and shortlisted the candidates. Chief minister BS Yeddyurappa and other senior party leaders also participated in the meeting.
Gowda said the party would finalise the entire list by Monday morning and send the same for the high command's approval.
The ruling party is eyeing 15 seats. But the party is ready with a plan B, if the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) do manage to clinch a seat-sharing deal, BJP sources said.
The BJP, which currently shares the largest party position with the Congress in the Upper House, is certain to emerge as the largest party after the elections.
Congress, Dal agree on tie-up
State JD(S) chief HD Kumaraswamy and Congress in-charge for Karnataka Ghulam Nabi Azad met in New Delhi on Saturday night and finalised an informal tie-up between the two parties in the council polls.
The Congress will contest 17 seats, while the Dal will fight it out in seven. In the 25th seat, Bangalore Rural district, both the parties will lock horns in a friendly fight.
JD(S) has announced candidates for four constituencies: Hulinayak (Tumkur), Ramakrishna (Mandya), Sandesh Nagaraj (Mysore) and Patel Shivaramu (Hassan).
