Karnataka Election: BJP's 1st List Of 189 Candidates Out, 52 New Names, CM To Contest From Shiggaon

The BJP today announced its first list of 189 candidates for the Karnataka assembly election. The list included 52 new faces, including some Congress turncoats. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has been fielded from Shiggaon constituency, his current seat. 

The BJP's election committee met in Delhi on April 9 to finalise the names for 224 assembly seats. Bommai, speaking to media, said that a second list will be out soon.  Other key BJP leaders Ramesh Jarkiholi and Govind M Karjol will contest from Gokak and Mudhol, respectively. The list was released at the party headquarters in Delhi by BJP's Karnataka election in-charge minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh in the presence of other leaders. Arun Singh said that the list includes 52 fresh faces, while there are 32 candidates from the OBC category, 30 from the Scheduled Castes and 16 from the Scheduled Tribes.

Expressing confidence about the party`s victory, Singh said that the people of the state trust Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. While on the other hand, he alleged that the Congress is losing space in Karnataka and is crippled by infighting while the Janata Dal-Secular is "a sinking ship". Karnataka will go to polls on May 10. The counting of votes will be taken up on May 13.