Karnataka polls: BJP releases list of 189 candidates, Bommai in fray from Shiggaon

New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday released its first list of candidates, comprising 189 names, for the May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections.

The list was released at the party headquarters in the national capital by Karnataka election in-charge and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and BJP General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh in the presence of other leaders.

Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai will contest from his Shiggaon constituency.

Singh said that the list includes 52 fresh faces, while there are 32 candidates from the OBC category, 30 from the Scheduled Castes and 16 from the Scheduled Tribes.

Expressing confidence about the party's victory, Singh said that the people of the state trust Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. While on the other hand, he alleged that the Congress is losing space in Karnataka and is crippled by infighting while the Janata Dal-Secular is "a sinking ship".

The saffron party has fielded V. Somanna on Varuna seat to take on Congress heavyweight Siddaramaiah. Somanna will also be contesting from Chamarajnagar constituency. He had previously contested from Govindraj Nagara constituency.

Similarly, R. Ashok will contest on two seats, from his home seat Padmanabhanagar and from Kanakpura against Congress' D.K. Shivakumar.

B.Y. Vijayendra, the son of former Chief Minister and BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa, will contest from Shikaripura seat, the same constituency where his father had won seven times since 1983. State minister B. Sriramulu will contest from Bellary Rural.

BJP National General Secretary C.T. Ravi will contest from Chikkamagaluru.

The saffron party has fielded Yashpal Suvarna, who had aggressively campaigned for Hijab ban, from Udupi seat.

The BJP's election committee met in the national capital over the weekend to finalise the names.

Karnataka has a total of 224 Assembly seats. The counting of votes will be taken up on May 13.