BJP releases third list of candidates
Bengaluru/New Delhi, Apr 17: With just three days left for the deadline of filing nominations for the May 10 Assembly elections in Karnataka, the ruling BJP on Monday announced candidates for 10 more constituencies.
The party has fielded state BJP General Secretary Mahesh Tenginkai from the Hubli-Dharwad Central Assembly segment, which was represented by former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who joined the Congress today upset that he was overlooked for the contest by the saffron party.
In three seats, family members of party leaders have been given tickets. While former Minister and MLA Aravind Limbavali's wife Manjula Arvind Limbavali has got the ticket for the Mahadevapura Constituency, the party has fielded Katta Jagadish, son of former Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu from Hebbal.
Koppal Lok Sabha member Karadi Sanganna's daughter in-law Manjula Amaresh has been made the candidate from Koppal Assembly segment. Karadi Sanganna himself was a ticket aspirant from the segment and had planned to quit from his Parliament membership as well as from the party over delay in the ticket announcement.
In Bengaluru's Govindraj Nagar, Umesh Shetty has been given the ticket. Senior Minister V Somanna, who currently represents the seat, had requested the party to give his son Arun Somanna a chance from the constituency, after he was fielded from two Assembly segments- Chamarajanagar and Varuna (against Congress leader Siddaramaiah).
In Mysuru district's Krishnaraja Assembly segment a new face, Srivatsa, has been given the ticket as the party dropped four-time MLA S A Ramadas.
According to party sources, Shettar's exit seems to have influenced decision-making vis-a-vis the third list with the party giving tickets to family members of senior leaders or legislators who were aspirants, and renominating a couple of sitting MLAs.
Sitting MLAs Rajkumar Patil and Kalakappa Bandi have been renominated from the Sedam and Ron seats, respectively.
The BJP had earlier announced the first and second list of 189 and 23 candidates respectively, totalling 212 of the total 224 seats; now with the announcement of 10 more seats the figure stands at 222. The two seats remaining are Shivamogga and Manvi.
K S Eshwarappa, a former Deputy Chief Minister, has told the party's central leadership that he wishes to retire from electoral politics and has requested it to not consider fielding him in the Assembly polls from Shivamogga. He is however said to be seeking a candidacy for his son K E Kantesh from the seat.
#KarnatakaElections2023 | BJP releases third list of candidates.
— ANI (@ANI) April 17, 2023
BJP MLA Aravind Limbavali's wife Manjula Aravind Limbavali to contest from Mahadevapura. pic.twitter.com/Xc7VIautAp
ALSO READ---Will contest Assembly polls if party leaders permit, says MP Sumalatha
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
India-Pak tensions: Saudi junior foreign minister in Delhi on unannounced visit
New Delhi (PTI): Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Aljubeir is in India on an unannounced visit and held talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday with a focus on de-escalating tensions between India and Pakistan.
Aljubeir's visit to New Delhi comes as the already frosty ties between India and Pakistan plummet further following the Indian military's targeted strikes on nine terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
"A good meeting with @AdelAljubeir, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia this morning," Jaishankar said in a social media post.
"Shared India's perspectives on firmly countering terrorism," he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also landed in New Delhi around midnight last night on a scheduled visit amid the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan.
Araghchi will hold wide-ranging talks with Jaishankar shortly. He is also meeting President Droupadi Murmu in the afternoon.
In retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, Indian armed forces on early Wednesday carried out missile strikes on nine terror targets, including Bahawalpur, a stronghold of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror outfit, and Muridke, the base of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said India decided to carry out the "proportionate" strikes to bring the perpetrators and planners of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack to justice as there was "no demonstrable step" from Pakistan to act against terrorist infrastructure on territories under its control.
