Keeping old promises has emerged as an important criteria for the Bharatiya Janata Party while considering candidates for Legislative Council polls this time. The State core committee has reportedly decided to recommend the names of three migrants into the party, R. Shankar, N. Nagaraju (MTB) and A.H. Vishwanath, besides former MLA Sunil Vallyapure, who gave up his Assembly seat, to its central election committee, for a ticket to contest Legislative Council elections from the Assembly constituency.
While Mr. Shankar went by the party’s instructions against contesting the Assembly elections after tendering resignation as MLA, Mr. Nagaraju lost the polls mainly due to the contest by BJP rebel candidate Sharat Bachhe Gowda. However, Mr. Vishwanath contested the mid-term elections to Assembly much against the party’s suggestion, and lost them. Mr. Vallyapure, who earlier represented Chincholi Assembly constituency, had abided by the party’s decision to field newcomer Avinash Jadhav for the bypolls from his constituency.
What weighed in their favour was the fact that they were promised a ticket for the MLC polls scheduled on June 29.
Also, the core committee is said to be of the view that fielding the three migrants would help in taking care of the technical hurdles, as the Supreme Court had said that those who quit their Assembly membership to join the BJP should contest polls and win to get ministerial posts.
While elections are being held for seven MLC seats, the BJP can ensure the victory of four candidates considering its numerical strength in the Assembly.
Sources in the BJP said that the State core committee had also decided to toe the Central unit’s line of accommodating party workers when it comes to nominating five for the Upper House. However, the core committee would meet again sometime in the next week to decide on the nominations, sources noted.
Interestingly the BJP leadership, which is yet to recover from the shock of the party high command recently rejecting all its recommendations for the Rajya Sabha polls, desisted from formally announcing the names of candidates that would be recommended to the party Central election committee.
Briefing mediapersons about decisions taken by the party State core committee, BJP leader Arvind Limbavali only said that the names of four candidates would be recommended to the Central election committee.
