Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has officially announced its candidates for the three Assembly bypolls on February 13 with party MLC Y.A. Narayanswamy, who belongs to the Vokkaliga community, bagging the Hebbal ticket as expected.
The Bidar ticket has gone to former MLA Prakash Khandre, while another former MLA, Shivanagowda Naik, will contest from Devadurga.
All three candidates will file their nominations papers on Wednesday.
The BJP had won two of the three seats going to polls now in 2013 but had struggled to finalize the candidates for Hebbal and Bidar.
In Bidar, the party was keen on giving the ticket to Suryakanta Nagamarapalli, son of former minister and MLA late Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli.
But Mr Nagamarapalli was more keen on the Congress ticket, which however went to Rahim Khan. After Rahim Khan was finalised by the Congress, Suryakanta reportedly lost interest in contesting from Bidar and the BJP had no choice but to choose Prakash Khandre, sources said.
Former minister and local heavyweight, Katta Subramanya Naidu or a candidate suggested by him, was expected to be the BJP candidate for Hebbal.
But Mr Naidu told the leadership that he was neither interested in contesting nor keen on fielding his family members.
The party then gave the ticket to Naryanswamy. Shivanagowda Naik was always the frontrunner for Devadurga- a seat won by Congressman Venkatesh Naik in 2013.
A senior leader in the state BJP told this newspaper that the party would have to toil to retain Hebbal and Bidar, where a good number of voters belong to the minority community.
With the Congress fielding Muslim candidates in both seats, the BJP will have to put up a Herculean effort to retain its seats, the leader added.
