Karnataka Polls: BJP Announces Remaining 2 Candidates, Eshwarappa's Son Not On Final List

BJP has announced the names of the remaining two candidates in its fourth list for the Karnataka elections. The party has not given a ticket to senior leader K S Eshwarappa’s son K E Kantesh.

K S Eshwarappa (Left), his son K E Kantesh (Roght).

Source : PTI | Facebook

Karnataka Elections 2023: The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has released its fourth and final list of two candidates for the upcoming polls in the state. The party has fielded Channabasappa from Shivamogga and B V Nayak from Manvi. And what becomes important here is that BJP did not give a ticket to senior leader K S Eshwarappa’s son K E Kantesh from Shivamogga. 

Notably, Eshwarappa is the sitting MLA from the Shivamogga constituency. However, he had recently conveyed to the party's central leadership his wish to retire from electoral politics. The deputy CM, reported PTI, had requested it to not consider fielding him in the Assembly polls from Shivamogga. But he did urge the party to field his son K E Kantesh from the segment. 

From Manvi, an ST reserve constituency, the party has fielded B V Nayak. 

On the other hand, senior BJP leader and MLC Ayanur Manjunath, who too was an aspirant from Shivamogga, quit the party earlier on Wednesday and joined JD(S). He is now the JD(S) candidate from the Assembly segment, PTI mentioned. 

With the fourth list, the BJP has announced candidates for all 224 Assembly segments in the state. 

Meanwhile, senior Karnataka leader and former MLC Ayanur Manjunath will on Thursday file his nomination as a Janata Dal (Secular) candidate from the Shivamogga constituency. This comes after he joined the JD(S) in the presence of former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and was made the candidate from the Shivamogga constituency. In yet another setback to Karnataka BJP, Manjunath, a senior Lingayat leader from Shivamogga district, announced his resignation as an MLC and also from the primary membership of the party on Wednesday morning.

He will file for nomination as JD(S) candidate today after he was denied a ticket from the Shivamogga seat by the BJP, presently being represented by former minister K.S. Eshwarappa.

The Shivamogga constituency had witnessed the brutal killing of Bajrang Dal activist Harsha and a spate of disturbing incidents of violence in the recent past.

Thursday, April 20 is the last day for filing nominations. Voting in Karnataka will take place on May 10 and the counting of votes will be done on May 13.