Bengaluru: With the Congress putting three key Assembly seats on hold including Badami, which is still in Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's gunsights as well as Madikeri and Jagalur, the opposition BJP has decided to release its third and final list of candidates only after conferring with the party president Amit Shah who only arrived in the city late Tuesday night.
With the Congress taking stock of Congress ST leader and former MLA, N.Y. Gopalakrishna joining the BJP, the saffronists have decided to release its final list of 70 candidates on Wednesday only after discussing strategy with party national President Amit Shah. Mr. Shah arrived in Bengaluru on Tuesday night.
The BJP is yet to name candidates for the all important seats of Varuna, Chamundeshwari, Badami and Yeshwanthpur. If Chief Minister stands from Badami, BJP will field a tough candidate against him. For Varuna, BJP may bow to pressure from B.S. Yeddyurappa to give ticket to his son B.Y. Vijayendra.
In Yeshwanthpur, the party has yet to find a suitable candidate to face Congress but with Yeddyurappa pressurizing his party to field his trusted loyalist Shobha Karandlaje from there, as she represented that constituency in 2008- 2013, the party may well consider her candidature for Yeshwantapur.
Congress leader N.Y. Gopalakrishna who joined the BJP on Monday could be fielded from Kudlgi Assembly constituency.
