Will he, won’t he? BJP MP Karadi Sanganna Amarappa still fighting for Koppal

Koppal: Sitting Koppal BJP MP Karadi Sanganna Amarappa is the only one among the 16 BJP parliamentarians in Karnataka who is yet to get his ticket with the constituency slated to go to polls in the second phase on April 23.

Party sources said the announcement of Sanganna's candidature has been delayed because of the lack of unanimity in the state BJP.

“On Tuesday, Sanganna and his followers had a long meeting with party state president B.S. Yeddyurappa at the latter's residence in Bengaluru but his candidature is yet to be declared owing to opposition from a section in the BJP,” said a source. According to party sources, the BJP Parliamentary Committee had resolved to extend tickets to all the incumbents regardless of complaints by party leaders against their style of functioning in their respective constituencies.

The high command arrived at this decision after carefully reviewing the brewing dissent between two major factions in the state BJP-one led by RSS strongman and BJP national organising secretary BL Santosh and the other by Yeddyurappa.

“Sangh Parivar leaders including Santosh are however opposed to the renomination of Sanganna, instead they want to give the ticket to the party's national council member C.V. Chandrasekhar,” said a top source. Further, party sources said, the leadership is in a quandary with party national president Amit Shah himself not too keen on Sanganna after he reportedly tried to “blackmail” the central leadership to secure a ticket for his son from Koppal.

“Arrey aisen aadmi ko kyu ticket dein?” Shah is said to have asked Yeddyurappa and others during his recent visit to the state, according to sources.

Karadi Sanganna belongs to the Kuruba community which dominates in Koppal and was earlier in the Janata Dal (S) and Congress before joining the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha poll.

The Congress has announced the candidature of Kuruba leader and zilla panchayat member Rajashekar Hitnal, son of Congress leader Basavaraj Hitnal and elder brother of Koppal Congress MLA Raghavendra Hitnal for the seat.

Basavaraj Hitnal had contested from Koppal in the 2014 polls and was defeated by Karadi Sanganna.