The BJP’s fourth and final list of contesting candidates was announced on April 19 night. With this list rolling out, the BJP has announced its candidates for all 224 Assembly constituencies for the upcoming elections.
It is however, interesting to know that the son of K. S. Eshwarappa, K. E. Kantesh was not given a ticket. It was earlier speculated that K. S. Eshwarappa of the 40% commission fame had suggested his son’s name for the Shivamogga (Shimoga) Assembly constituency.
In an earlier development, Eshwarappa had allegedly advised the BJP leadership to exclude him from the upcoming Assembly elections as he wanted to retire. This reason could however, be an attempt to masquerade the brutal selection process of candidates this election season.
While the BJP has been celebrating new faces this time, Eshwarappa had proven to be a strong candidate in Shivamogga in the last Assembly elections. He had won around 60% vote share with a margin of more than 46,000 precious votes against K. B. Prasanna Kumar of the Congress.
Only two Assembly constituencies were left out by the BJP’s previous lists and this announcement rendered the process complete. One was Shivamogga and the other was Manvi Assembly constituency of Raichur District.
While the confidence of BJP rests in the hands of Channabasappa in Shivamogga, the Manvi ticket was awarded to a Former Congress MP B. V. Nayak. With a strong JDS presence in Manvi, B. V. Nayak will face the JDS heavyweight Raja Venkatappa Nayak.
In the meanwhile, senior BJP leader and MLC Ayanur Manjunath quit BJP and joined JD (S) on Wednesday. The disgruntled Manjunath was a BJP ticket aspirant from Shivamogga constituency. But now, Manjunath has already been named as the Shivamogga candidate. So it is BJP versus Former BJP in Shivamogga in the upcoming Assembly elections.