The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced SN Channabasappa as its candidate from Shivamogga City for the upcoming Karnataka polls on Wednesday, April 19. Saving its decision till the penultimate day, the BJP announced Channabasappa as its choice of its candidate, ignoring senior leader KS Eshwarappa’s son KE Kantesh. Eshwarappa, who is the sitting MLA of the constituency, had resigned from electoral politics several days ago at the request of the party high command, who wanted him to make way for others to contest from the seat. Sources close to Eshwarappa said that he was told till the last minute that Kanthesh was being considered for the ticket. The last day for filing nomination papers is April 20.
Channabasappa, called Channi, is considered to be an Eshwarappa loyalist and hails from the Lingayat community. He is known for his hardcore Hindutva stance. In 2015, he was arrested for threatening the then CM Siddaramaiah over the latter’s remarks on consuming beef. Channabasappa had threatened Siddaramaiah that he would be ‘beheaded’ if he dared to eat beef. He was the BJP’s district general secretary and also a four-time corporator. In April 2022, a case was registered against him and Eshwarappa for hurting religious sentiments, after they made provocative statements following the death of Hindutva activist Harsha in Shivamogga in February 2022.
Channabasappa will be contesting against Ayanur Manjunath, who has now joined the Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)]. An MLC, Ayanur ditched the BJP, when it became apparent that he would not get a ticket to contest from BJP in Shivamogga and joined JD(S). The Congress is fielding HC Yogesh, after ignoring other aspirants including district president Sundaresh. All three candidates belong to the Lingayat community. The BJP ticket for Manvi has been given to BV Nayak, who quit the Congress days ago and joined the BJP.
Mohiuddin Bawa, a former MLA and contender for the Mangalore City North constituency ticket, has announced that he will be joining the JD(S). The decision comes after Bawa was denied the ticket by the Congress party, which instead awarded it to Inayath Ali. The Congress party had kept the candidate for the constituency undecided, with both Bawa and Ali in the running for the ticket. NR Santhosh, the former political secretary to CM Yediyurappa who had joined the JD(S) after being denied the ticket in the BJP, was given the ticket from the JD(S) for the Arasikere constituency in Hassan district.
The JD(S) has also extended support to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Republican Party of India (RPI) on three seats each. It has also extended support to the Congress candidate Darshan Dhruvanarayana, who is contesting from the Nanjangud constituency on the Congress ticket. His father Dhruvanarayana, a popular leader, passed away in March this year.
In a last-minute change, the Congress changed its candidate in Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's constituency Shiggaon to Yasir Khan Pathan, replacing Mohammad Yousuf Savanur.
The Congress has also announced AC Srinivas as its candidate for the Pulakeshinagar constituency and handed the ticket to DK Mohan from the KR Pura constituency in the fifth list of party candidates released late Wednesday night.