In a clear message to the Karnataka Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa, while clearing three of the four candidates, his favourites, for the legislative council elections, the BJP central leadership refused to accept Vishwanath (who joined BJP from Janata Dal Secular and had lost in the 2019 by-polls from Hunsur).

The leaders in Delhipicked Pratap Simha Nayak, president of BJP’s Dakshina Kannada unit — the home turf of state BJP chief Nalin Kumar Kateel — and is backed by the Sangh as candidate in Vishwanath’s place.

As per the BJP Parliamentary Committee list released on Wednesday, MTB Nagaraj, R Shankar, Sunil Vallyapure and Pratap Simha Nayak have been chosen as candidates.

MTB Nagaraj (lost the by-polls due to the BJP party’s MP B N Bachhe Gowda’s son Sharat contesting as a rebel) and R Shankar (gave way for BJP candidate in the by-poll) had joined the BJP after deserting the Congress-JDS coalition in 2019 and were instrumental in bringing the Yediyurappa-led BJP government to power in the State.

Sources claimed Yediyurappa had pushed for Sunil Vallyapure’s candidate as his reward for stepping back to allow incumbent Gulbarga MP Umesh Jadhav’s son Arvind Umesh Jadhav to contest in Chincholi Assembly constituency. Umesh Jadhav too had quit the Congress to join the BJP and defeated Mallikarjun Kharge in the Lok Sabha polls from Gulbarga.

The BJP Central leadership rejecting Yediyurappa’s choice of Vishwanath is seen in the political sphere that yet again the message is that the State core committee and Chief Minister need to adhere to party norms.

Congress

The Congress party too surprised all when it decided to field its general secretary B K Hariprasad and incumbent MLC Naseer Ahmed as its candidates for Legislative Council.

JDS

The Janata Dal Secular (JDS) has fielded Govindaraju, a business man from Kolar, for the Legislative Council eleaction scheduled to be held on June 29. Sitting member T A Saravana and Rajya Sabha member Kupendra Reddy, who is set to retire on June 25, were strong contenders for the seat.

For seven Karnataka Legislative Council vacancies, with their respective party strength in the Assembly, BJP can nominate four, Congress two and JDS one. Today being the last day for filing nomination and as there are no other candidates or independents in the fray they are likely to get elected unopposed.