BJP to decide on candidates for 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka today: BS Yediyurappa

Shivamogga (Karnataka) [India], March 6 (ANI): The BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) will meet today to decide on the candidates for the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said.

Yediyurappa who is a member of the BJP’s Parliamentary Board and the CEC on Tuesday said that he will be in the national capital Delhi for the meeting.

“There is an election committee meeting in Delhi and I am going to participate in the meeting. Candidates from almost all 28 seats will be finalised by the in-charge at the meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal,” Yediyurappa told reporters here on Tuesday.

He further said that the meeting would take place in the presence of senior party leaders.

The BJP had came out with its first list of 195 candidates across 16 States and Union Territories on March 2.

In the 2019 general elections, the BJP had won 25 out of the 28 seats. The Congress and the JD(S), headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, which fought the Lok Sabha elections together and both parties won only one seat each. The remaining seat was won by an independent candidate.

Meanwhile, the Congress party’s central election committee is also holding a meeting on March 7 in New Delhi, where it will finalise the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha election in Karnataka, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

“We will have our final central election committee meeting on March 7. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and I are going to Delhi on March 7 where we will finalise the (first) list of candidates,” he said.

Both he and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had held a meeting with the Congress general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Randeep Singh Surjewala, on Monday.

The Congress had scored a thumping victory in Assembly elections held in May 2023.

The Lok Sabha polls are likely to be held in April-May this year.