Bengaluru: Among the 189 names of the candidates announced yesterday, the BJP has denied tickets to eight sitting MLAs in its first list.
These MLAs have been denied over various factors, including internal survey, performance, and contribution to the party.
Eight sitting MLAs who have been denied tickets are Goolihatti Shekhar, Haladi Srinivad Shetty, Sanheeva Matandoor, Raghupati Bhat, Anil Benake and Lalji Mendon.
Before the party could deny him the ticket, Shetty wrote to the party leadership, requesting them not to consider him for the ticket in the upcoming election.
The 72-year-old leader is a 5-time MLA from Kundapur. The party has given the ticket to Kiran Kumar Kodgi.
Bhat lost to Yaspal Suvarna who got the ticket to contest from Udupi for successfully leading the party during the hijab controversy. Suvarna is a businessman and has the backing of RSS and Bajrang Dal.
Matandoor faced opposition from the local leaders for ignoring them and loose talks. A video of a woman with him had gone viral. The BJP has fielded Asha Thimappa from Puttur.
Mendon, a 3-time MLA from Kaup in Udupi district, was overlooked and fielded a new face Gurme Suresh Shetty, though the survey favoured him. However, party sources said that the people of the constituency were unhappy with Mendon for inadequately handling Praveen Netaru’s murder case.
Apart from these, Mahadevappa Yadawad from Ramdurg and Ramanna Lamani from Shirahatti have been denied tickets mainly due to age factor.
Shekhar, Hosadurga MLA, has been denied ticket after a section of local BJP leaders were opposed to his candidature. The party has given a ticket to S Lingamurthy.
Benake has been denied a ticket from the Belagavi North Assembly constituency as survey reports spoke against him. The party has given a ticket to Dr Ravi Patil.
