Date:10/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/10/stories/2008041052590400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Resentment in BJP against ‘outsiders’

Special Correspondent

First list to be announced in Delhi today

BANGALORE: The Bharatiya Janata Party will announce its first list of candidates for the coming elections to the State Assembly in Delhi on Thursday. The list will be announced after obtaining the clearance from the party’s Central Election Committee.

The party State unit has already finalised the names of about 160 candidates. The list was carried to Delhi by party State unit president D.V. Sadananda Gowda on Wednesday. Party’s chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa and general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar are expected to leave for Delhi on Thursday.

Even as the party is gearing up to announce its first list, its leaders are already facing the heat of resentment.

The party’s reported moves to field two of its MLCs — Shobha Karandlaje and Aravind Limbavali — to contest the polls from two new constituencies in Bangalore has become a bone of contention. The local ticket aspirants and their supporters are resenting the moves to field these two MLCs, who are outsiders, in these constituencies.

The resentment was expressed publicly on Wednesday when a large number of supporters of a party worker and BJP ticket aspirant from Yeshwanthpur, Mr. Hanumantharayappa, protested in front Mr. Yeddyurappa’s residence demanding that only a local resident should be fielded from Yeshwanthpur instead of the reported plans to field Ms. Karandlaje. Mr. Yeddyurappa was in Shimoga when the protesters came to his residence.

According to sources, the party top leadership is now gripped by a debate on whether it is proper to field the MLCs when there are too many aspirants.

While some leaders are of the view that the MLCs should quit their Council membership if they want to contest the polls, the party is yet to take a stand in this regard.