In a new twist to who will get the BJP ticket for Chincholi bypolls, Umesh Jadhav, who quit the Congress recently and fought the Kalaburagi Lok Sabha polls against M. Mallikarjun Kharge, has sought it for his son Avinash Jadhav. This comes shortly after the State BJP core committee finalised the name of Ramachandra Jadhav, the brother of Mr. Umesh Jadhav, for the seat.

On Saturday, the Jadhav brothers declared that Mr. Avinash would contest instead Mr. Ramachandra.

Mr. Umesh Jadhav had resigned from his Chincholi Assembly membership and Congress to contest the Lok Sabha elections on BJP ticket against Mr. Kharge. With the Chincholi seat falling vacant, now a byelection is being held. Speaking to presspersons here on Saturday, the Jadhav brothers cited health reasons for Mr. Ramachandra’s refusal to contest the bypolls and said that there was no confusion in the family.

“My brother himself declined to contest as his health is not good. There is also pressure from the people to field my son. So, he would be the BJP candidate,” Mr. Umesh Jadhav told reporters, adding that the nomination papers would be filed on Monday.

Mr. Ramachandra also spoke on the same line.

“I may not be able to efficiently discharge my duties as the people’s representative. I, therefore, turned down the offer. We, in fact, wanted to field somebody outside our family. But, the people of the constituency were keen on seeing Mr. Avinash as the party candidate,” he said and added that he would honestly strive for his nephew’s victory.

Won’t quit BJP: Valyapure

Ending speculations, senior BJP leader from Chincholi and former Minister Sunil Valyapure, who was upset ever since Umesh Jadhav entered the party, said he would “honestly work for Avinash Jadhav’s victory.”

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Mr. Valyapure said he was making “sacrifices” to help BJP State unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa become the Chief Minister. He also said that fielding Mr. Umesh Jadhav as BJP candidate against Mr. Kharge in the Lok Sabha election and giving party ticket to somebody from his family in return to his resignation to Assembly membership was the mutually agreed upon deal before party national president Amit Shah.

“Mr. Yeddyurappa told me that if we deny party ticket to Mr. Umesh Jadhav’s family for Chincholi byelection, it would send a wrong message and generate distrust about BJP among Congress MLAs who were ready to resign from their Assembly memberships and join BJP. He requested me to sacrifice Chincholi ticket and help him attract as many MLAs from the ruling coalition as possible so that he could form the BJP government,” he said.