BJP announces candidates for 20 MLC seats

Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced candidates for 20 of the 25 Legislative Council seats election of which are slated to be held on December 10. Among the candidates are a few sitting MLAs, including Social Welfare Minister Kota Srinivas Poojari.

The elections are being held for local authorities' constituencies following the retirement of sitting members on January 5, 2022. The counting of votes will take place on December 14.

The party has fielded Suja Kushalappa from Kodagu, Kota Srinivas Poojary from Dakshina Kannada, M K Pranesh from Chikkamagaluru, Pradeep Shettar from Dharwad, Mahantesh Kavatgimath from Belagavi, B G Patil from Gulbarga, K S Naveen from Chitradurga, Raghu Koutilya from Mysuru, Vishwanath from Hassan and Ganapathi Ulvekar from Uttara Kannada.

The BJP gave tickets to Prakash Khandre from Bidar, H S Gopinath Reddy from Bengaluru, Manju KR Pete from Mandya, Dr K N Venugopal from Kolar, Vishwanath A Banahatti from Raichur, B M Narayanaswamy from Bengaluru Rural, Y M Satish from Ballari, N Lokesh from Tumakuru, P H Pujar from Vijayapura.

The party, however, has not announced candidates in those districts where two seats are lying vacant, an office-bearer of the party said adding that there is a possibility of another list in the next couple of days.