New Delhi: A day ahead of a meeting to finalize candidates for the Karnataka Assembly polls, BJP president JP Nadda on Saturday discussed possible names with prominent leaders of the state, including Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and BS Yediyurappa. The BJP’s parliamentary board will meet on Sunday to finalize candidates for the May 10 election to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly. Before the discussion began, Chief Minister Bommai said, “We will discuss about all possible candidates. We have district and constituency-wise details and recent survey results. Keeping this in mind, we will hold detailed discussions with national leaders.” do.”
The BJP, which is aiming to come back to power in the southern state, has set a target of winning at least 150 of the 224 seats. Asked whether the complete list would be announced in one go, Bommai told reporters that barring a few names, the rest of the names could be announced after getting the board’s nod. He said the list of candidates would be finalized in the Parliamentary Board meeting to be held on Sunday at 5 pm.
Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Mansukh Mandaviya, who is the BJP’s in-charge for the assembly polls in the state, as well as senior party leader Arun Singh attended the meeting at Nadda’s residence here. Besides Bommai and former Karnataka chief minister Yediyurappa, BJP national secretary CT Ravi and state BJP president Nalinkumar Kateel were also present in the meeting.
The main opposition parties of the state, Congress and JD(S) have announced their preliminary list of candidates for the elections. Their final list is awaited. Smaller parties in Karnataka such as Karnataka Rashtra Samithi, Aam Aadmi Party, All India Majlis-Ittehadul Muslimeen and Social Democratic Party of India have also announced their first and second lists.
The Congress has announced candidates for 166 out of the total 224 seats, while the JD(S) has announced a list of 93 candidates. The notification for the election will be issued on April 13, while the last date for filing nominations is April 20. The results will be declared on May 13.