Delhi leaders pick candidates for May 10 polls, not local ones

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Did the BJP high command consider recommendations made by the Karnataka unit to give tickets to candidates for the May 10 Assembly polls? “Absolutely not!” The list of candidates prepared by the state BJP unit after taking suggestions from boothlevel workers in each Assembly constituency was just dumped in the dustbin. The list prepared by the Delhi leaders based on inputs from their different sources and survey reports were reportedly considered at the time of finalising the candidates.

The state unit had recommended names of almost all senior legislators to the high command thinking that the list would be approved without any questioning. At the same time, the state unit did not want the tickets to be given to the sitting MLAs like Channagiri MLA Madal Virupakshappa, and Mudigere MLA MP Kumaraswamy who are embroiled in controversy.

Since former CM BS Yediyurappa, Kundapur MLA Haladi Srinivasa Shetty, and Davangere MLA SA Ravindranath had asked the high command not to consider their names for the forthcoming election as they had decided to take retirement from electoral politics, the state unit did not have any problems.

But how the high command dealt with the senior legislators like former CM Jagadish Shettar, Ports and Fisheries Minister Angara, former deputy chief minister Lakshman Savadi and a couple from Kalyana Karnataka and Kittur Karnataka by forcing them to retire from electoral politics had upset those leaders. The high command had not considered giving a ticket to former MP Muddahanumegowda who had been promised the ticket from the Kunigal constituency at the time of inducting into the party.

Highly-placed sources told News Trail that Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President JP Nadda got surveys done from different agencies without the knowledge of the state unit and also inputs from various persons to dig out every bit of information about every candidate. After that, they decided to force electoral retirement on all those candidates who have been winning for the last four or five times in a row in a bid to bring new faces.

Then a separate list of the senior MLAs' was prepared to deny them the tickets no matter what caste or religion they belonged to. This shocked the state leaders including Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai who felt that dumping of the senior MLAs would send a wrong signal to the party workers, and requested to reconsider their decision.

But the Delhi leaders categorically said no and decided to inform all those persons who must announce retirement from electoral politics, in person. Accordingly, senior BJP leader KS Eshwarappa agreed to the high command's decision but Shettar sought one more term as he was 67 years old.

But interestingly, the Delhi leaders not touched Govind Karjol, an MLA from Mudhol and the SC leader. The sources bemoaned that this kind of axing of the candidates never happened in the past and the high command would use it to approve the list of candidates recommended by the State unit.

For the first time in the history of the BJP, the Delhi leaders picked the candidates on their own without considering any recommendations by the state unit. The effect of this major shakeup would be known on May 13 when the EVMs are opened to count the votes.