BENGALURU: The short list of seven nominees announced on Monday by the
BJP central leadership without the name of MP Shobha Karandlaje, and a seventh ticket for a candidate from the camp of
Ballari Reddy brothers and B Sreeramulu is being perceived as a setback to BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa.
Further, with the list remaining silent on Varuna, where Yeddyurappa’s second son B Y Vijayendra had been campaigning aggressively even before a formal announcement, it remains to be seen whether the chief ministerial aspirant for the party will be able to outmanoeuvre his rival faction.
Meanwhile, the party’s fourth list has reinforced the notion that the influence of mining baron G Janardhana Reddy is only growing.
Lallesh Reddy, a realtor and nephew of the brothers, has been fielded from BTM Layout and he is expected to give a tough fight to sitting
MLA and incumbent home minister R Ramalinga Reddy.
At the other end, Yeddyurappa’s close confidante Karandlaje was denied a ticket from Yeshwantpur, where actor and fellow Vokkaliga Jaggesh will be the BJP candidate.
Caught in the game of oneupmanship among the party’s Vokkaliga leaders, Jaggesh, who is said to be a close associate of sitting Padmanabhanagar MLA and former deputy chief minister R Ashoka, is said to have been “forced” into accepting the candidature.
Besides B Sreeramulu, Somashekara Reddy, Karunakara Reddy, Sanna Fakirappa, T H
Suresh Babu and actor Saikumar from the Reddy brothers camp have already made it to the BJP’s list.
G R Pravin Patil (Bhadravati), H Lilavathi (Ramanagara), Nandini Gowda (Kanakpura), H K Suresh (Belur), J Preetham Gowda (Hassan) are the other candidates to make it to the BJP list.
The party has announced candidates from 221 of the 224 seats. The seats for which candidates are yet to be announced are Badami, Varuna and Sidlaghatta.