BJP to finalise candidates for bypolls, MLC seat

BENGALURU: The Karnataka BJP Core Committee will hold a meeting soon to finalise the names of candidates for the three Assembly constituencies of Shiggaon, Channapatna and Sandur, which have fallen vacant after three MLAs were elected as MPs.

State BJP chief BY Vijayendra told reporters on Friday that the party is confident of winning all three seats. Hitting out at DyCM DK Shivakumar, who had stated that no one from his family would be contesting from Channapatna, Vijayendra said it is not important who the Congress candidate is. “All we know is, BJP and JDS will fight and win the seat,” he said.

Vijayendra told TNIE that the BJP state executive meeting will be held on July 4 or 5 in Bengaluru. On the same day, the core committee meeting will discuss the bypolls, including the three Assembly constituencies represented by HD Kumaraswamy (Channapatna), Basavaraj Bommai (Shiggaon) and E Tukaram (Sandur), along with an MLC seat from Dakshina Kannada (Local Body), represented by Kota Srinivas Poojari.

The party is constituting a committee which will conduct a survey of these four segments to shortlist names of probable candidates. Kumaraswamy will be consulted for Channapatna, but he did not say whether the candidate would be from BJP or JDS.

Vijayendra also said there was no guarantee of how long Siddaramaiah would remain chief minister. “They wanted to finish DK Shivakumar, so they took up the issue of more DCM posts, now there is a demand for a change of CM,” he said.