Lok Sabha polls: BSY loyalist Shobha Karandlaje, Ananthkumar Hedge\'s tickets on hold

Bengaluru: The BJP's list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka is finally out. Minus two sitting BJP MPs-Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje and Uttara Kannada MP Ananthkumar Hedge. However, all the other MPs have been renominated by the Central Election Committee of the party which finalized the tickets for 22 Lok Sabha seats of the 28.

Ms Karandlaje's renomination was held back following strong opposition from state core committee members of the party. A decision on giving the ticket again to Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Ananthkumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada was held back for the same reason.
While Mr Hedge faced stiff opposition because of his controversial remarks on sensitive issues including the Constitution and secularism, Ms Karandlaje faced the wrath of core committee members because of what they said was her inaccessibility to voters of Udupi-Chikamagaluru and her non-performance.

The core committee members at the meeting, BJP national joint organizing secretary B.L. Santhosh, former minister C.T. Ravi, senior leaders, Jagadish Shettar and K.S. Eshwarappa, opposed tickets to Ms Karandlaje and Mr Hegde, BJP national president Amit Shah has referred the two cases to the PM. Since both are sitting MPs and one a minister at the Centre, only the PM can take a final call on tickets for them, Mr Shah reportedly said. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to take a decision on the ticket allotment for these two MPs, said party sources, adding that Bharatiya Janata Party state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa is strongly backing his diehard supporter Ms Shobha Karandlaje and has assured Mr Shah that it’s his responsibility to ensure her victory.

Mr Yeddyurappa has also taken the stance that denying the ticket to Ms Shobha Karandlaje and Mr Ananthkumar Hegde will send a wrong message to the BJP cadre across the state and would have an adverse impact on other Lok Sabha seats.

The other four seats for which the party could not finalise candidates are Raichur, Ballari,Tumakuru and Mandya.

The party is expected to announce its candidate for the Tumakuru constituency only after former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda announces if he intends to contest from the seat or not.
Decision on Mandya

The Bharatiya Janata Party will also have to decide on backing Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh in Mandya or putting up its own candidate.
Candidates for 22 seats

Bengaluru North constituency – D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Bengaluru Central constituency – P.C. Mohan, Bengaluru South constituency – Tejaswini Ananthkumar, Bengaluru Rural constituency – C.P. Yogeshwar/his daughter Nisha Yogeshwar, Dakshina Kannada constituency – Nalin Kumar Kateel, Mysuru-Kodagu constituency – Pratap Simha, Chikkodi constituency – Anna Saheb Jolle, Haveri constituency – Shivakumar Udasi, Davangere – G.M. Siddeshwar, Koppal – Karadi Sanganna, Kalaburagi – Umesh Jadhav, Chamarajanagar – V. Srinivasprasad, Kolar – Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, Chitradurga – Anekal Narayanaswamy, Hassan – A. Manju, Hubballi-Dharwad – Prahlad Joshi, Bagalkote – Gaddigowdar, Vijayapura – Ramesh Jigajinagi, Chikkaballapura – B.N. Bachegowda, Bidar – Bhagavanth Khuba, Belagavi – Suresh Angadi and Shivamogga constituency – B.Y. Raghavendra.