Bengaluru: Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s party Janata Dal (Secular) took everyone by surprise on Saturday by announcing candidates for 126 Assembly seats even before the election schedule for Karnataka is announced by the poll panel.
The list was made public on the same day that the JD(S) supremo addressed an election rally with BSP chief Mayawati in Bengaluru, indicating that a seat sharing formula has been worked out.
The first list, however, features names only from the JD(S). Its alliance partners BSP and NCP are likely to be accommodated in the second list as the JD(S) will only contest from 58 of the remaining 98 seats. Karnataka Assembly has 224 seats.
As promised by Gowda earlier, the first list has only two names from his family. The party’s state chief and former CM HD Kumaraswamy will contest from Ramanagara and his elder brother HD Revanna will contest from Holenarasipura. Both are sitting MLAs.
Names of Gowda's grandson Prajwal Revanna and daughter-in-law Anitha Kumaraswamy's are missing from the list. However, the party has not declared a candidate for Channapatna, from where Kumaraswamy's wife is likely to contest.
But Gowda has poured cold water on ambitions of Prajwal by declaring candidates for both Belur and Hunasur seats in Hassan and Mysore districts. Prajwal was eyeing one of the two seats.
The party though has kept the RR Nagara seat in Bengaluru city vacant and Prajwal may contest from there. The 27-year-old had almost revolted against his uncle Kumaraswamy six months ago and had called the JD(S) a "suitcase" party. Gowda had openly reprimanded him and threatened disciplinary action.
Former Prime Minister Gowda is known for his political acumen and deft handling of any crisis, and he is likely to give tickets to some Congress and BJP rebels once they declare their candidates.
The BJP, which used to be the first party to declare candidates, is yet to come out with a list. State leaders are clueless and claim that party chief Amit Shah will decide the candidates after one more round of internal survey.
Congress insiders, on the other hand, claim that chief minister Siddaramaiah has already told about 150 candidates, including over 100 sitting MLAs, to start preparing for the election in their constituencies. The official list will take a few more days, they said.
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