Karnataka: Shobha Karandlaje in, but Tejaswini Ananth Kumar not in BJP\'s first list

Bengaluru: She was the first candidate to get a thumbs up from central leaders of BJP, but late Union minister H.N. Ananth Kumar's widow, Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, much to the surprise of party workers does not figure in the first list of contestants released in New Delhi on Thursday - in which even three former Congressmen make it.

Sources in the party said central leaders approved her candidature when they sensed that former deputy chief minister R Ashoka was trying to lobby for the ticket for one of his loyalists and attempted to get state unit leader B S Yeddyurappa on board. She was even told to commence her campaign to retain the seat occupied by her late husband for six consecutive terms. Some leaders, are insisting that her name was withheld for "technical reasons" and that it would figure in the second list.

However, sources also pointed out that while former minister Shobha Karandlaje was all smiles as she made it to the first list, another former minister Jayaprakash Hegde, turned down offers from JD (S) to contest from Udupi-Chikkamagaluru, but has been working the phones to secure the ticket for this constituency as he was elected to Lok Sabha from here in a bypoll.