The names of candidates from Karnataka, the only State in South India where the BJP has held power, did not figure among the party’s first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, even as it announced candidates from Kerala and Telangana on Saturday.
Sources in the State unit of the BJP said that the party high command was waiting for a survey report and inputs from here, owing to which names from Karnataka was not on the agenda at the recent midnight marathon meeting of the party’s Parliamentary Committee. “Karnataka is expected to come up for discussion in the next meeting,” a source said.
Meanwhile, seat sharing between the two alliance partners, BJP and JD(S), is also yet to be finalised. “The alliance has been smooth and organic. The JD(S) may end up with three seats, but there are some issues that are yet to be sorted out,” a strategist for the party said.
While it was thought that the JD*S) would get Hassan, Mandya, and another seat, the incumbent Independent MP from Mandya lobbying hard for BJP ticket has upset calculations. There is also the question of whether JD(S) State president and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy will contest polls and if so, from which seat.
In the second list, the BJP may announce some candidates from the State, while holding back seats that are being discussed between the alliance partners, sources said.
