BJP fields V Somanna against Siddaramaiah in Varuna constituency, R Ashok against DK Shivakumar
List of 189 candidates include 52 new faces, 32 OBC candidates, 30 SC and 16 ST candidates
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its list of 189 candidates for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections. The announcement was made on Sunday, April 11, 2023. Among the list of candidates, the incumbent Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will contest from the Shiggaon constituency.
Other notable candidates announced by the BJP include Former IPS Officer Bhaskar Rao, who will contest from the Chamrajpete constituency, Govind Kajrol, who will contest from Mudhol, and BS Yatnal, who will contest from the Bijapur City constituency.
The list also includes V Somanna will be pitted against former Karnataka CM and Congress strongman Siddaramaiah from Varuna constituency, while Minister R Ashok will contest from Kanakpura constituency against Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar.
Bharath Shetty from Mangaluru North and Vedavyas Kamath from Mangaluru South have also retained their party tickets.
The list includes 1 Retired IAS Officer, 1 IPS officer, five lawyers, 31 Post Graduates, 8 Women, 9 doctors, 32 OBC candidates, 30 SC and 16 ST candidates. This is a clear indication of the BJP's efforts to include individuals from various backgrounds and professions. 52 candidates on the list are fresh faces while several sitting MLAs including Udupi’s Raghupathi Bhat have missed out on the party ticket.
The Karnataka Assembly elections are scheduled to be held on May 10, 2023, and the results will be announced on May 13, 2023. The BJP is hoping to retain power in the state.
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Stalin accuses Centre of trying to use women's quota as 'weapon,' slams EPS over delimitation
Chennai (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has strongly criticised the Centre over the women's reservation and accused it of trying to use it as a "weapon" to tackle the opposition before taking up the delimitation exercise based on population.
"The Union government is not concerned about implementing reservations for women. If their concerns were genuine, they could have done it right away. Rather than doing that, the BJP-led Centre is thinking of using it as a weapon to tackle opposition and take up the delimitation exercise based on population," he told PTI in an interview.
"Hence, the women's reservation must be implemented immediately without showing delimitation as a reason," the DMK president added.
Expressing apprehensions on the proposed delimitation exercise, the CM said it was the DMK that raised the first voice asserting the rights of the state after realising that Tamil Nadu would be affected by the proposed exercise. He also attacked his rival and AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami over the delimitation issue.
Recalling efforts made by the DMK to raise the issue of population-based delimitation, he said an all-party meeting and a meeting of CMs under the auspices of the Joint Action Committee seeking fair delimitation were convened. It sought to freeze delimitation for 25 years and stick to it based on the 1971 Census population.
"We urged the union government that states which successfully implemented population control programmes must not be punished," he added.
The party came up with "Tamil Nadu poradum, Tamil Nadu vellum" (Tamil Nadu will struggle, Tamil Nadu will win) and this is DMK's stand, he said.
"However, Palaniswami, who is seeking votes for the entry of the BJP through the backdoor, has till date been mute over delimitation, and this is a betrayal of the people of Tamil Nadu."
