The ruling BJP on Tuesday announced its second list of 35 candidates for the May 5 Assembly elections. Prominent names in the list include Housing Minister V Somanna and Bangalore Central MP P C Mohan who will contest from Vijayanagar and Gandhinagar constituencies respectively.
Somanna’s follower H Ravindra has been given the ticket for Govindrajnagar. Dattatreya Patil Revoor who joined the party on Tuesday, also got the ticket.
Apart from Somanna, Rammanna Lamani is the only sitting MLA in the second list. Putur MLA Mallika Prasad has been denied the ticket.
All three major political parties in the state — Congress, BJP and JD(S) — are yet to announce candidates for all the 224 constituencies. So far, the Congress has announced candidates for 177 constituencies, the BJP 175 (including 35 names announced on Tuesday) and the JD(S) 122.
Of the three, the Congress seems to be in the most trouble over selection of candidates as voices of dissent are being heard in several constituencies where it has announced candidates.
The allegation of “selling tickets’’ for big money has also made things worse for the party high-command which is struggling to finalise candidates for the remaining constituencies including the ones where the kin of senior leaders are aspirants.
The party is said to have constituted a committee to review candidatures in controversial Assembly segments.
Revoor, who joined the BJP on Tuesday, was the JD(S) candidate from Gulbarga South. His mother Aruna Patil, a sitting JD(S) MLA will also join the BJP soon.
The sudden development left BJP ticket aspirant Shashil Namoshi angry. “The BJP has deceived me,’’ Namoshi reacted while announcing that he would be in the fray come what may.
As if to make up for the JD(S)’s loss, BJP MLA from Sagar Belur Gopalakrishna said he will join the party on Thursday. He is likely to get a ticket from Sagar.
The chief election commissioner V S Sampath who held a two-day review meeting on poll-preparedness here announced that the voting hours will be restored to 7 am to 5 pm.
The decision came following stiff resistance from political parties to the earlier timing. The election process will officially be set in motion from Wednesday with the election commission issuing the notification for the May 5 polls. This also marks the beginning of filing of nominations. The last date for filing of nominations is April 17 and for withdrawal, April 20.