The incumbent MP and former Union Minister had been making remarks that had embarrassed the party
Continuing its experiment of changing some of its incumbent MPs with new faces, the BJP has ignored former Union Minister and MP for Uttara Kannada, Anantkumar Hegde, who has been embarrassing the party through controversial remarks, for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls and fielded former Assembly Speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri in his place.
The party announced its second list of candidates for Karnataka on Sunday for four constituencies.
It may be noted that Mr. Hegde had referred to the intentions to change the Constitution multiple times and embarrassed the party.
Mr. Kageri had lost the 2023 Assembly elections from Sirsi.
As announced by party veteran leader B.S. Yediyurappa, the party has fielded former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar from Belagavi, which is presently being represented by Mangala Suresh Angadi, a relative of Mr. Shettar.
Mr. Shettar, who rejoined the BJP after a brief stint with the Congress, was initially reluctant to shift from his home district of Dharwad to Belagavi as some sections in Belagavi had resorted to a “go back Shettar campaign.”
Similarly, the BJP has fielded former Minister K. Sudhakar, who had lost the Assembly elections, from Chickballapur. Incumbent MP B. N. Bache Gowda had already disassociated himself from the BJP and formally quit the party a few days ago.
The party has renominated Raja Amareshwar Naik from Raichur.
Interestingly, the BJP has continued the suspense with respect to the political future of Union Minister of State A. Narayanaswamy, who represents Chitradurga in the Lok Sabha seat, as the candidate for this seat is yet to be announced.
With the announcement of candidates for four more seats on Sunday, the BJP has completed the process of selection of candidates for all the Lok Sabha seats, barring one in Karnataka, as the party had earlier announced a list of candidates for 20 seats.
Of the total 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, the BJP is contesting in 25 while its alliance partner Janata Dal (S) will be fielding candidates in three constituencies. The BJP has announced candidates for 24 constituencies while the JD (S) is set to announce its first list on Monday.
In the first list, the BJP had changed nine candidates while in the second list it has changed the candidates in three constituencies.
