BENGALURU: BJP leaders are making a beeline for party state chief BS Yeddyurappa’s residence in Bengaluru for tickets. Leaders of Bengaluru South and Rural met Yeddyurappa to discuss candidates while a representation of leaders from North Karnataka was also present to push for aspirants. Seats of Hassan, Bengaluru South and Rural took prominence at Tuesday’s meeting with some senior leaders expressing their displeasure over Tejaswini Ananth Kumar’s probable candidature. Tejaswini has expressed her willingness to contest from Bengaluru South on a BJP ticket.
C P Yogeshwar is being considered for Bengaluru Rural while A Manju is being looked at as a candidate for Hassan. “Many leaders have also proposed the name of Preetham Gowda. We will hold another round of talks and arrive at a decision,” said R Ashoka, who is in charge of elections.
Leaders like Bhagwanth Khuba, Shivanagouda Naik, Madhuswamy, Pritam Gowda were also present at the meetings. Davangere MP G M Siddeshwar made an appeal to be given another chance despite being dropped from the Narendra Modi cabinet.
BJP, which is yet to announce a candidate for the Mandya seat, is likely to back Sumalatha Ambareesh if she contests as an independent. “JD(S)’ loss in Mandya is a foregone conclusion. We are yet to talk to Sumalatha but we are open to supporting an independent candidate,” Ashoka said.
Mass deletion of voter names?
BJP on Tuesday lodged a complaint with Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar, alleging that officers tasked with election duties are deleting voter names on a mass scale. “A check is being carried out in residential apartments, and one such instance of name deletion was reported in in Bengaluru, where 100 names were deleted,’’ BJP leader CT Ravi said in the complaint. The party has called for action against officers.