Amid simmering discontent within the BJP in various constituencies, following the announcement of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, the party’s veteran leader BS Yediyurappa on Tuesday said efforts are on to resolve all the issues and there are no complications.
The former chief minister said he will be visiting Davangere and Belagavi today and March 27 to resolve issues there.
“I’m going to Davangere today and to Belagavi tomorrow. We will sit and discuss with our party workers and leaders there and resolve issues. In a way, there are no complications across the state,” Yediyurappa, who is also a member of BJP’s Parliamentary Board and Central Election Committee said. Speaking to reporters here, he said, “Our expectation is that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership we have to win all 28 seats, and we are honestly working for it. I’m confident that we will be successful in it.” Yediyurappa on Monday met outgoing Davangere MP G M Siddeshwar whose wife Gayatri is the BJP candidate from there.
Former party legislators M P Renukacharya and S A Ravindranath have been openly expressing their opposition to her candidacy. In the Belgaum (Belagavi) Lok Sabha segment, there is resentment within the party over former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar being given the ticket.
Several local party leaders are opposing his candidature as Shettar, who is from Hubballi-Dharwad has been given the ticket, sidelining aspirants in Belagavi district. There is also some disgruntlement in several other constituencies, like Chikkaballapur, Koppal, Shimoga, Haveri, Tumkur, Bidar, Raichur and Chitradurga.
On Monday, Yediyurappa and other senior leaders of BJP held talks with sitting Koppal MP Karadi Sanganna who had threatened to revolt, after being denied the ticket to recontest. The party gave the Koppal ticket to Dr Basavaraj Kyavator. A section of BJP workers have staged a protest against the BJP’s decision to field former minister K Sudhakar from Chikkaballapur. They were demanding a ticket for Alok, son of Yelahanka MLA S R Vishwanath.
Yediyurappa last week visited Tumakuru to meet a sulking former Minister J C Madhuswamy, who was upset over a ticket being given to V Somanna. In Bidar, BJP MLAs Prabhu Chauhan and Sharanu Salgar are upset over party re-nominating Union Minister Bhagwanth Khuba from there, despite their opposition.
In Shimoga, another BJP veteran, K S Eshwarappa, has announced his candidature as an Independent against Yediyurappa’s son and sitting MP B Y Raghavendra. Eshwarappa has blamed Yediyurappa for the party denying the Haveri ticket to his son K E Kantesh, and instead picking former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai there. The general elections in Karnataka will be held in two phases on April 26 and May 7 for 28 constituencies.
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