BENGALURU: The BJP on Thursday evening released a list of in-charges for the upcoming bypolls in two assembly seats and one parliamentary seat in Karnataka. State Unit Vice-President and Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra, who was hoping to contest from Basavakalyan assembly seat, has been named as one of the in-charges for Maski assembly seat. With this development, Vijayendra’s probability of contesting as a candidate seems unlikely.
The party has named 21 in-charges, including deputy chief ministers, ministers, legislators and party office-bearers for the three bypoll-bound seats. Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, ministers V Somanna, Basavaraj Bommai, MP Bhagawant Khuba, State Vice-President Malikayya Guttedar, MLA Rajkumar Patil Telkar and leaders Eshwar Singh Thakur and Amarnath Patil have been appointed in-charges for Basavakalyan. The seat, previously held by the Congress, fell vacant after MLA B Narayana Rao passed away due to Covid-19.
In Maski, whose previous MLA Pratapgouda Patil was disqualified under the anti-defection law and joined the BJP along with a host of rebel legislators from Congress and JDS in 2019, the BJP has appointed minister B Sriramulu, MLC and State General Secretary N Ravikumar, Vijayendra, leaders Nemiraj Naik, Narasimha Nayak (Raju Gouda) and Dr Shivaraj Patil as in-charges.
For Belagavi parliamentary seat that fell vacant following the demise of Union minister Suresh Angadi due to Covid-19, the BJP state unit has appointed ministers Jagadish Shettar, Umesh Katti, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Shashikala Jolle, Union minister Pralhad Joshi, leaders Mahesh Tenginakai and Basavaraj Yankanchi as in-charges. The national leadership of the party earlier this week announced election in-charges for three states and one Union Territory awaiting elections -- Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.