With around a month left for the May 10 Assembly polls, all the parties have expedited their process of finalizing the tickets in Karnataka.
A screening committee of the ruling BJP in the state is meeting at a private resort here on Saturday to finalize candidates for the first list.
The party had already collected opinion from the local leaders and officer-bearers of every Assembly constituency regarding the candidates. The leaders will hold discussions with core committee members of all districts for two days starting Saturday.
Three senior party workers in every district will finalize the list of candidates and send it to the central committee after considering all inputs, explain insiders.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had stated that it would take a week’s time for the party to announce a list of candidates.
According to sources, the opposition Congress which had announced the first list of 124 candidates, has finalized a second list of 70 candidates.
The party had held a series of meetings in this regard and discussed the contest of Siddaramaiah from the Kolar constituency as well. His candidature had been already announced for Varuna constituency.
For the remaining 100 seats, sources in Congress explain that one name has been finalized for 60 constituencies. For more than 30 seats, two names have been finalized and for five constituencies, the party still has to decide among as many candidates.
Responsibility for quelling the dissidence has been given to state party President D.K. Shivakumar. The list has already been sent to the high command and the final call will be taken in New Delhi, sources said.
Meanwhile, JD(S), which announced 93 candidates in December 2022, is expected to announce the second list by next week. The party is likely to take a call on Hassan assembly seat, which has resulted in strife within the family of former PM H.D. Deve Gowda.
