BENGALURU: Keen on fulfilling its commitment to N Muniratna, BJP’s State core committee on Thursday unanimously agreed on his candidature for the upcoming bypolls in Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency. Muniratna was one of the former Congress-JDS MLAs who jumped ship to the BJP, resulting in the collapse of the coalition government in 2018.
The State unit has sent its recommendations for all six seats — two Assembly and four Council — for consideration of the party’s Central Election Committee. Sources from the core committee said that Muniratna is the only unanimous recommendation made for Rajarajeshwari Nagar. For Sira, the core committee listed former Congress MP C P Mudalagiriappa’s son Rajesh Gowda. Two other names, S R Gowda and B K Manjunath, were also discussed. The committee is said to have agreed that a Vokkaliga candidate will fare better in the constituency that also has a considerable Golla voting population.
With Rajarajeshwari Nagar seat almost secure, the BJP is deploying heavy resources in Sira assembly seat -- previously held by JDS. The core committee has appointed eight in-charges for Sira alone. No other seat has been given such priority. “Deputy Chief Ministers Govind Karjol and Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, State General Secretary N Ravikumar, B Y Vijayendra, P C Mohan, A Narayanaswamy, Poornima Srinivas and Thippeswamy have been appointed as in-charges for Sira,” said Arvind Limbavali, vice president, State BJP.
The team is a lethal combination of two DyCMs -- one SC and one Vokkaliga -- office-bearers and legislators from SC/ST, Lingayat and OBC communities. With MLA Poornima Srinivas also given charge, her husband Srinivas’ candidature is unlikely to progress.The core committee discussed various issues, including KG Halli and DJ Halli violence, and Limbavali submitted a report by the party’s fact-finding committee to CM B S Yediyurappa.
Rajarajeshwari Nagar
Aravind Limbavali, R Ashoka, S T Somashekhar, Byrathi Basavaraj, S R Vishwanath
Bengaluru Teachers
S Suresh Kumar, BJP gen secy Siddaraju
South-East Graduates
J C Madhu Swamy, Dr K Sudhakar, Y A Narayana-swamy, Dr Shivayogiswamy
West Graduates Jagadish Shettar, Shivaram Hebbar, Mahesh Tenginakayi
North East Teachers
K S Eshwarappa, Shashikala Jolle, Mahantesh Kavatagimath