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Journalism of Courage
While the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) have announced their first list of candidates for May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections, the ruling BJP is not in a hurry as its focus is on completing processes set by the leadership before the list of probable candidates are sent to the high command.
After carrying out three separate surveys in every constituency, the BJP has collected the opinions of local leaders on probable candidates in each constituency in a secret ballot and district-level core committee meetings are currently underway to shortlist the candidates, according to party sources. In a day or two, the opinions will be collected and the BJP Parliamentary Board is likely to meet on April 4.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP’s main poll strategist, attended a core committee meeting of the party leadership in Karnataka during his last visit to the state on March 26. At the meeting, Shah, according to sources in the BJP, said the leaders should not worry about the poll ticket issue and should focus on the ground work necessary to fight the polls.
“Ultimately, it is the high command that will decide on the candidates for every seat. They will look at the background and feedback on candidates. Already three rounds of surveys have been completed,” former Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa, who is a member of the party’s Parliamentary Board, said on March 30.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said a few days ago that the party would announce its candidates after all processes were completed, including surveys, performance review, and other guidelines set by the leadership.
“The list of BJP candidates will be released soon. The party has survey reports in hand along with recommendations and suggestions of taluk and district-level workers and leaders. The complete details will be sent to the party Parliamentary Board for its approval and it may take a week,” Bommai said on March 29.
Ahead of the release of the Congress’s first list of 124 candidates on March 25, Bommai had said, “The list of BJP candidates will be announced as per the timetable set by the party.”
The BJP held secret ballots over the last couple of days in all constituencies to understand the choice of candidates of local party leaders in every region.
There have been a few embarrassments, with one leader revealing publicly that his choice for the Channagiri region was the elder son of the current BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa who has been arrested for corruption.
Last year, the BJP indicated that as many as 30 per cent of its sitting MLAs, including several over the age of 70 like Yediyurappa, and those with cases against them would not be fielded in the Assembly polls to give the party a makeover.
Yediyurappa recently indicated that only five or six of the 118 sitting BJP MLAs would lose out on tickets. “Since every election is different there is no example of giving tickets to all the sitting MLAs,” CM Bommai said.
Yediyurappa himself stepped out of the poll fray in July 2022 by suggesting that his son B Y Vijayendra, 46, will take his place in the Shikaripura seat in the Shivamogga district. “The party has not decided on whether I should contest the polls and the constituency that I should contest. There have been no discussions and no decisions,” Vijayendra said Friday.
The BJP has indicated that among the 11 Congress and JD(S) MLAs who defected to the BJP in 2019 to help it form the current government only one or two will lose out on seats.
The BJP is however concerned that it will lose the support base of its own cadre in the constituencies of the Congress and JD(S) rebels if tickets are given to the turncoats. “Maybe one or two of those who came to us will go but all others who came with us will remain in the party,” Yediyurappa said. Two rebels from the Congress and JD(S) who are BJP ministers and likely to be denied tickets are expected to join the Congress.
Apart from the Congress, the JD(S) has released its first list of candidates. The list of 93 candidates was announced as far back as December.
The Congress’s first list was decided on the basis of the winnability of candidates —including the performance in the last polls, surveys to analyse the standing of a candidate, and the level of internal competition in a constituency. The Congress has given tickets to 60 of its 69 sitting MLAs and 64 persons who came second in 2018 or those considered as having a good chance of winning the polls this time.
The Congress conducted an elaborate process of inviting applications from prospective candidates and charged a fee of Rs 2 lakh for filing of applications by candidates from the general category and Rs 1 lakh for candidates from the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories.
The party also obtained oaths of allegiance from prospective candidates in constituencies with multiple aspirants to work in unity even if they are denied tickets.
According to sources, the party’s state chief D K Shivakumar and workers have spoken to aspirants who lost out on tickets in the 124 seats where candidates have been announced to keep dissidence under control. The party could, however, face a more serious challenge when the remaining 100 candidates are announced for seats that the party is not sure of winning.
In its first list, the JD(S) also renominated a large chunk of those who won the 2018 polls — 26 of 37 MLAs — and even 17 candidates who finished second last time.
