BJP releases candidates list for Karnataka Legislative Council elections

Bengaluru, June 18: The BJP has announced the names of four candidates for the Legislative Council elections due in Karnataka on June 29. The names of former Ministers R Shankar and M T B Nagaraj, Prathap Simha Nayak and Sunil Vallyapur were announced by the party late on Wednesday night.

Thursday is the last date for filing of nomination for the Legislative Council elections necessitated due to the retirement of seven sitting members. Of the seven seats, the BJP is likely to win four seats, the Congress two and the JD(S) one seat given their strength in the assembly.

The ruling BJP has 116 members excluding Speaker, Congress 68 and the JD(S) 34 members in the assembly. The party opted to give ticket to Shankar as promised and opted to field Nagaraj and excluded AH Vishwanath.

Nayak hails from Dakshina Kannada district while Vallyapur is from Kalaburagi and a former minister. Shankar, Nagaraj and Vishwanath were the rebel Congress and the JD(S) MLAs who had resigned from the Karnataka Assembly to bring down the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in June 2019 and helped install the BJP government led by B S Yediyurappa in the state.

Later, 16 of the 17 rebels joined the BJP, of which 15 had contested the byelections in December including Nagaraj and Vishwanath, who lost the polls.

Shankar was not fielded in the Assembly bypolls with a promise that he would be made an MLC and a minister later. As the MLC elections neared, Nagaraj and Vishwanath renewed efforts to secure ministerial berths through the legislative council.

Vishwanath's hopes have been dashed with the announcement of the list of candidates. The Legislative Council elections have been necessitated as the term of seven members- Naseer Ahmed, Jayamma, M C Venugopal, N S Bose Raju, H M Revanna (all Congress), T A Sharavana from JD(S) and independent DU Mallikarjuna- will end on June 30.