BJP names 72 candidates for Karnataka polls

Veteran state leaders Jagadish Shettar and KS Eswarappa will contest from Hubli Dharwad Central and Shimoga Assembly seats, respectively, it said. 

The BJP top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, met earlier on Sunday to finalise the candidates for the polls. Senior party leader J P Nadda released the list of 72 candidates following the committee’s meeting. The BJP has also fielded its Lok Sabha MP B Sriramulu in the polls. 

The meeting, official sources said, delineated on probable candidates for over 140 seats and the names of remaining candidates are likely to be announced soon. The elections to the 225seat assembly are scheduled for May 12. 

The BJP is pulling out all the stops to oust the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government from Karnataka, the only big state where the opposition party is in power. 

Earlier on March 3, Yeddyurappa had exuded confidence in winning over 150 of the 224 assembly constituencies in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly polls. 

“People of northeast and Tripura, in particular, have rejected corrupt and divisive politics of the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist)..it is now clear that Karnataka will also reject Congress for its corruption and divisive politics unleashed by Siddaramaiah,” Yeddyurappa had said in a statement in Bengaluru. Karnataka will emulate Tripura, he had said.