Court cases haunt BJP aspirants

Bangalore: There are ticket aspirants aplenty, but the top brass of BJP has a tough task on hand in picking candidates with a clean image for the Lok Sabha elections.

Though the aspirants are keen to ride on the popularity of Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the front-runners among them are facing one charge or another in various courts in Karnataka.

Prominent among them are former Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, state unit president Prahlad Joshi, former deputy chief ministers R. Ashok and K.S. Eshwarappa, and former ministers Murugesh Nirani, Aravinda Limbavali, C.T. Ravi, S.A. Ramdas, and legislator S.R. Vishwananth. All of them are eager to contest the polls, but the leaders are wary of fielding them against candidates of the ruling Congress party.

According to sources in the party, the tale of many incumbent MPs seems no different with leaders set to replace them with new faces.

Those likely to be denied tickets include P.C. Mohan, D.B. Chandre Gowda, G.S. Basavaraj, Janardhan Swamy, Sanna Fakirappa, J. Shantha, Gaddi Goudar and B.Y. Raghavendra.

Meanwhile, the RSS top brass has sounded a general alert in Karnataka about the impact of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) factor.

During a meeting with BJP leaders, the RSS top brass warned for them that leaders of AAP could focus on cases against Yeddyurappa in the run-up to Lok Sabha polls.