Karnataka Assembly Elections: BJP Announces List of 72 Candidates

BJP’s chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa, will contest from Shikaripura assembly constituency.

BJP president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a file photo.

(Photo: Reuters)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced the first list of 72 candidates for the upcoming Karnataka elections on Sunday, 8 April.

The list was made public following a meeting of the BJP’s central election committee at the party headquarters in New Delhi.

The meeting was chaired by party President Amit Shah and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj among others.

BJP’s chief ministerial candidate for Karnataka, B S Yeddyurappa, will contest from Shikaripura assembly constituency. While veteran state leaders Jagadish Shettar and K S Eswarappa will contest from Hubli Dharwad Central and Shimoga Assembly seats, respectively.

BJP has also fielded its Lok Sabha MP B Sriramulu in the polls.

The meeting, official sources said, delineated on probable candidates for over 140 seats and the names of remaining candidates are likely to be announced soon.

The elections to the 225-seat assembly are scheduled for 12 May.

The BJP is pulling out all the stops to oust the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government from Karnataka, the only big state where the opposition party is in power.

(With inputs from PTI, ANI and The Times of India)