The Bharatiya Janata Party announced its candidates for the upcoming bypolls, on Thursday night.
The party has let go off its opposition to dynastic politics and fielded Mangala Suresh Angadi, wife of the late Union Minister Suresh Angadi for the Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency, raising eyebrows.
The possibility of a senior leader Satish Jarkiholi contesting the bypolls — necessitated by the death of Suresh Angadi due to COVID-19 in September 2020 — forced the BJP that did not have a strong candidate to bank on the sympathy wave for the Angadi's family, sources in the party said.
Principled stand
It may be recalled that Tejaswini Ananth Kumar was denied the ticket from Bengaluru South constituency in the 2019 parliamentary elections on the grounds that the party had taken a principled stand against dynastic politics and had instead fielded Tejasvi Surya.
Also, the choice of Suresh Angadi’s wife as the candidate is being seen as an effort by the party to focus on its cadre rather than parallel entries from other parties in Belagavi, especially in the wake of the CD scandal involving the former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi who has a dominant presence in Belagavi.
The party has expectedly given the ticket to defector Pratapgouda Patil from the Maski Assembly segment.
The bypolls to this Assembly segment was pending as the election of Mr. Patil in 2018 was legally challenged.
The BJP has fielded Sharanu Salagar, a Lingayat leader from Kalaburagi, from the Basavakalyan Assembly seat.
