BJP central leadership finalises candidates, keeps State unit in dark

Bengaluru: After a weeklong evaluation and analysis by the 'experts', the BJP leadership on Tuesday released the list of candidates for four Legislative Council elections. Contrary to all expectations and predictions, the party central leadership finalised the candidates and conveyed it to the State unit. Until last minute, the State leadership didn't have a hint about the candidates.

Giving prominence to backward communities and SCs/STs, the BJP leadership has finalised the candidature of Lakshman Savadi, former deputy Chief Minister, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, head of the SC BMP Morcha, Hemalatha Naik, Secretary of the State BJP, and S Keshava Prasad. Basavaraj Horatti, former speaker of the Legislative Council who defected to the BJP recently from JDS, has been given a ticket to contest from the Teachers' constituency(West).

The party has weighed its options on the basis of the caste calculations. Lakshman Savadi belongs to the Veerashaiva Lingayat community and Keshava Prasad is froma backward community.

Vijayendra, State BJP vice president and son of former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and his close aide Mohan Limbikayi, were also aspirants for the tickets to contest in the elections.But both of them have been left out by the party leadership. In a surprise move, the BJP central leadership bypassed the State leadership while announcing the candidates for five seats. They received calls directly from Delhi to file their nominations within three hours on the pre-lunch session on Tuesday being the last day for filing nominations. Hemalatha Naik, who was in Koppal district air-dashed to Bengaluru in a private chopper and filed her nomination and collected her 'B'form from the party office in Malleshwaram. Her followers, however, managed to make all the arrangements prior to her arrival.

Basavaraj Hortatti arrived at the nomination centre in a pensive mood and said, "I was reminded of the sacrifices my family, particularly my wife has made when I was busy in politics."

Vijayendra is in the bigger scheme of things: Kateel

Whoever said Vijayendra was in running for the seat was wrong, the party has bigger things in store for him.He has so much energy in him that the party wanted him to utilise in strengthening the party in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly elections next year. "Vijayendra hasthe talent for creating winning candidates for the party and this will be fully utilised during the next elections.Sonobody should see anything wrong in Vijayendra being kept out of Council polls," State BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel said.

Will Vijayendra be soon crowned BJP State president?

Vijayendra has been the vice president of the party in Karnataka for three years and has gained much experience in the party organisation. According to inner circles of the BJP, he will have to take more responsibilities on his shoulders for the 2023 Assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Will this mean that he will be crowned State BJP president? When asked, the sources said that would be the ideal as Nalin Kumar Kateelis likely to be given more responsibility on the national scene and will contest in the Lok Sabha elections from his constituency in Mangaluru.