In BJP’s Karnataka list three turncoats make the cut

Bengaluru, Mar 22: In the list of candidates released by the BJP for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, three turncoats have made the cut.

Umesh Jadhav, A Manju and Y Devendrappa who left the Congress to join the BJP have been given tickets. The BJP announced the names of 21 candidates to contest the LS polls from Karnataka. The names of seven other candidates are yet to be announced.

Jadhav will take on Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge from Gulbarga, while Manju will be up against Deve Gowda's grandson Prajwal Revanna at the Hassan constituency. Y Devendrappa will fight the elections from the Ballari seat.

The BJP has also fielded former union minister, V Srinavas Prasad from the Chamrajnagar seat. Prasad it may be recalled had quit the Congress in 2016.

On the other hand, the BJP has not yet named a candidate for the Mandya Lok Sabha seat. The party is yet to decide on whether to field a candidate from the constituency or support Sumalatha Ambareesh, who is contesting as an independent candidate.

The party is also yet to make an announcement for the Bengaluru South seat, which has been a stronghold of the late Ananth Kumar. His wife Tejaswini is a front runner for the ticket.

Along with Bengaluru South and Mandya, the party is yet to announce its list of candidates for the seats at Koppal, Chikkodi, Kolar, Bengaluru Rural and Raichur.