Zee Media Bureau/Deepak Nagpal
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party`s (BJP) central election committee (CEC) on Saturday decided to give former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa - who recently merged his Karnataka Janshakti Party with the BJP - Lok Sabha ticket from the Shimoga parliamentary constituency.
Addressing the press after the party CEC meet in which the second list of LS candidates was finalised, Ananth Kumar said Yeddyurappa would contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from Shimoga on a BJP ticket.
“We have decided on tickets for 52 Lok Sabha candidates today... (further) we have decided on 20 candidates out of the total 28 seats from Karnataka,” Ananth Kumar said.
Listing out some other key names, the BJP leader said Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra would contest from Hooghly.
Ananth Kumar, a sitting MP, would himself contest from Bangalore South, while Sadananda Gowda would fight from Bangalore North.
While Nimu Bhowmik would file nomination from Raiganj, singer Babul Supriyo would fight from Asansol.
The BJP today also decided on candidates for all Assembly seats from Odisha which go to polls simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections.
Meanwhile, reacting to reporters` questions on Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi leaving the CEC meet mid-way, Kumar said, “Sushma ji had to go to Bhopal and Joshi ji had to go for some work.”
It may be noted that Sushma was perceived to be against re-inducting Yeddyurappa into the BJP, while Joshi has been unhappy over reports that Narendra Modi could contest from his Varanasi parliamentary seat.
Kumar also informed that the BJP CEC would now meet next on March 13.
