BJP yet to release list of party candidates for Assembly elections

Mangaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party, which is known for announcing its candidates well in advance, has yet to name its candidates for any constituency for the upcoming elections.

In contrast, Congress has already released its first list of candidates for 124 constituencies.

The Election will be held for the 224 seats of the Karnataka Assembly on May 10. The gazette notification will be issued on April 13 and the last date to file the nomination is April 20.  

According to BJP leaders, the party's list of candidates is likely to be out by April 9 as the process of finalizing candidates is currently in progress.

District Core Committee meetings have been held in every district in the past two days. The names proposed here would be scrutinized by the State Election Management Committee. The names will then be placed before the State Core Committee, which is set to meet in two days.

"The State Core Committee will submit about three names for each constituency and send it to the Parliamentary Board," a senior BJP leader told Deccan Chronicle.

After all this process the names finalized by the Parliamentary Board are likely to declare candidates for all the constituencies on April 8 -9.

Despite the delay in announcing candidates, the BJP has completed several rounds of campaigning in every constituency and strengthened itself organizationally. Once the list is out, the party will again engage with the people to introduce the candidates.

Several constituencies have many aspirants. Leaders believe that the delay in declaring the list could benefit the party as there will be little time for dissatisfied members to rebel.

Meanwhile, the second list of Congress candidates is also being delayed as there are multiple ticket aspirants in many constituencies.  Party leaders are currently holding meetings with aspirants to ensure there is no discontent within the party.