BSY heads to Delhi for talks with Shah on LS polls

BENGALURU: With poll dates looming large for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa has made his way to New Delhi for holds parlays with the central leadership and, in specific, party national president Amit Shah to finalise the candidates from Karnataka.
With doubts cast over no less than six sitting party MPs likely to be dropped for the upcoming 2019 polls, Yeddyurappa is likely to find it an uphill task to convince Shah and co.over the plausible and likely candidates as replacements for the hustings.
Furthermore, Yeddyurappa is expected to also finalise the candidature of his son and sitting MP from Shivamogga B Y Raghavendra along with other confirmed candidates including Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad), Shivakumar Udasi (Haveri), Ananth Kumar Hegde (Karwar), Nain Kumar Kateel (Dakshina Kannada) from the few secure seats of the party.
The major talking points with Shah is likely to include the candidature of late cine actor and former union minister Ambareesh’s wife Sumalatha who is likely to contest as an independent from Mandya and the candidature for Ballari constituency with Molkalmuru MLA B Sreeramulu and his sister J Shantha unlikely to contest polls this time.
It is speculated that the BJP is expected to lure disgruntled Congress MLA B Nagendra to contest from Ballari constituency.
The candidatures for Bengaluru South which includes the name of late Union minister H N Ananth Kumar’s wife Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, that of retaining Udupi-Chikkamagalur MP and Yeddyurappa confidante Shobha Karandlaje and that of Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda are also likely to be discussed.
On Thursday, speaking to the media in Hubballi, Yeddyurappa expressed his confidence of winning 22 seats of the 28 in the state and ensure that prime minister Narendra Modi will be elected for the second term.
“With the wave in favour of PM Modi, we are sure of coming back to power at the centre with 300 seats or more. In the state, with an eye of ensuring this landslide victory, we are confident of winning 22 of the 28 seats,” he said.
Later in the day, Yeddyurappa joined Union minister for textiles Smriti Irani in Gadag to attend a Shakthi kendra meeting in the district.
It is said Irani had arrived in a special flight and Yeddyurappa is scheduled to leave with her in the same flight to meet Shah.
The meeting is being scheduled for Friday morning with Shah and other central leaders of the party.