The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) first list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls has finally been released with names of 189 candidates. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, while releasing the list, said that the party is attempting to usher in a new generation of leaders with fresh ideas. Among the significant announcements was that sitting minister R Ashoka will take on Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar in his stronghold of Kanakapura and V Somanna will contest against former CM and Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah in Varuna. Incidentally, both R Ashok and V Somanna are contesting from two constituencies each, R Ashok from Padmanabhanagar and Somanna from Chamarajanagar.
Several sitting MLAs and ministers have been retained, including Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai from Shiggaon in Haveri district. These include Munirathna, Ashwathnarayan, K Sudhakar, B Sriramalu, MP Renukacharya and others. Significantly, the BJP has given a ticket to BY Vijayendra, son of BJP strongman BS Yediyurappa, to contest from Shikaripura in Shivamogga district. Former police commissioner Bhaskar Rao IPS will contest from Chamarajpet in Bengaluru. Retired IAS officer Anil Kumar will be contesting from Koratagere where he faces senior Congress leader Parameshwara.
Several legislators who had defected from Congress, JD(S) in 2019 have been given tickets to contest from BJP. This includes Ministers K Sudhakar, Muniratna, Byrathi Basavaraj, and M Narayana Gowda. The BJP also gave a ticket to Ratna Mamani, wife of late BJP MLA and Deputy Speaker Anand Mamani. She will be contesting from Saundatti Yellamma constituency. Nikhil Katti, son of BJP leader and Minister late Umesh Katti, will be contesting from Hukkeri. Umesh’s brother Ramesh has also been given a ticket and he will be contesting from Chikkodi-Sadalga constituency. Vijayanagara sitting MLA Anand Singh has given way for his son Siddharth, who will be contesting from the constituency.
In addition to Ratna Mamani, the other women candidates are Shashikala Jolle (Nippani), Rupali Nayak (Karwar), Shilpa Raghavendra (Sandur), K Poornima Srinivas (Hiriyur), Sudha Shivaram (Nagamangala), Asha Thimappa (Puttur) and Bhagirathi Murulya (Sullia).
Of the 189 seats, 32 are from Other Backward Classes (OBC), 30 from Scheduled Castes, and 16 from Scheduled Tribes. There are also eight women candidates, along with eight social activists, academicians, ex-government employees and others.
The list was released in the BJP’s Delhi headquarters by Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is the party in-charge for the Karnataka polls. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Arun Singh and Tamil Nadu BJP unit president K Annamalai are the party's co-incharges for the elections.