LS Polls: Discontent brews in Karnataka BJP after announcement of first list

A day after the BJP announced its first list of candidates for 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka for the upcoming Parliament elections, discontent has started brewing among the ticket aspirants who were denied a ticket. Former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who was expecting a ticket from Haveri or Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency, said he will arrive at a decision on Thursday evening.

According to him, he is still in talks with the seniors in the BJP regarding the Belgaum seat. Shettar had returned to the BJP in January after quitting the Congress, which gave him a ticket for the 2023 assembly polls. Though he had lost that election, Congress nominated him as a Member of the Legislative Council. Incidentally Shettar had quit the BJP before the elections as he had been denied a ticket.

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Shettar's supporters claim that he was offered a Lok Sabha ticket in the 2024 elections by the BJP. When asked whether he was made a scapegoat as his name did not figure in the first list of candidates, Shettar said, “Don’t put words in my mouth. Everyone knows what’s going on. Hence, I am not going to comment on it. People will say and those who should say will speak up.”

Reacting to it, Union Minister for Coal and Mines, Pralhad Joshi said, “Shettar has said that his name is there for Belagavi constituency. I too know this. I will be happy if he gets the ticket from Belagavi or any other place because he is our very senior leader.” Another BJP leader left disappointed after the first list was former Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa. He was aspiring for a ticket for his son K E Kantesh. Eshwarappa accused the former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who is in the BJP’s apex body parliamentary board member, of chucking out his son from the Lok Sabha election.

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“There is a pressure on me to contest the election independently,” Eshwarappa told reporters in Shivamogga, yesterday. Sitting BJP MP and former Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who has been denied a ticket from Bengaluru North constituency, on Thursday called on Eshwarappa. “He is deeply pained. I got to know that he is convening a meeting tomorrow in Shivamogga. Hence, I came to meet him,” Gowda told reporters after meeting Eshwarappa.

Sadananda Gowda too is said to be sulking as the BJP has replaced him with Union Minister of State for Agriculture Shobha Karandlaje from Bengaluru North. Karandlaje on Thursday called on Gowda and sought his blessings to win the Lok Sabha election. Meanwhile Yediyurappa said Eshwarappa’s son will be made a member in the Legislative Council. Supporters of sitting BJP MP from Koppal, Karadi Sanganna, went on a rampage after he was denied a ticket.

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The group blocked the entry of Dr Basavaraj Kuavator, the party's candidate from Koppal, when he came to meet Sanganna at his residence. Sanganna's supporters also went on a rampage and vandalised the BJP office in Koppal, breaking the window panes and furniture.