Karnataka Elections 2023: CM Bommai To Contest From Shiggaon, Yediyurappa's Son From Shikarpur

CM Bommai will contest from the Shiggaon Assembly seat, former chief minister Yediyurappa's son Vijendran will contest from Shikarpura Assembly seat, and CT Ravi will contest from Chikmagalur. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will likely release its first list of candidates for Karnataka elections 2023 on Monday or Tuesday after the party's Central Election Committee meeting concluded on Sunday. As the announcement is to be made, sources told ABP Live that the chief minister Basavaraj Bommai will likely contest from the Shiggaon Assembly seat while former chief minister Yediyurappa's son Vijendran will contest from the Shikarpur Assembly seat. CT Ravi will be contesting from the Chikmagalur assembly seat, as per sources. 

The party will re-elect approximately 90 BJP MLAs, sources further said.

The Central Election Committee meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, JP Nadda, Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP general secretary BL Santosh and other members of the party's Central Election Committee. 

The party's core group had shortlisted three names for each Assembly seat which was placed before the CEC after which the party's central leadership brainstormed over these names before locking the candidates.  

On Saturday, a parliamentary board meeting of the BJP leaders took place at BJP President JP Nadda's residence in the national capital. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Karnataka BJP president Nalinkumar Kateel, former Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, and other party leaders attended the meeting. 

On Friday, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced that BJP's state election commission had listed three names per constituency for the May 10 assembly polls.  

"Opinions have been gathered from constituency and district level, after which the State Election Committee has shortlisted three names (per constituency).. it will be discussed and finalised by the Parliamentary Board in Delhi," Bommai said during an interaction with the media. 

The BJP emerged as the largest single party in the last Assembly elections, winning 104 seats, with the Congress winning 80 and the JD(S) 37 seats. The Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had on March 29 this year announced the poll schedule for the election of the 224-member Karnataka Legislative Assembly.

The state will go to polls on May 10 and the votes will be counted on May 13. The term of the current Karnataka Legislative Assembly is set to end on May 24 this year.