Bypolls: BJP ahead in candidate selection, Congress weighs options

BJP leads candidate selection for upcoming bypolls, while Congress faces internal challenges and community pressure in Bagalkot and Davangere.

As the nomination process for the by-elections to Bagalkot and Davangere South constituencies has begun, BJP has taken its first step forward by announcing the party candidates, while Congress is yet to finalise its candidates and seems to be under pressure as of now.

The bypolls have been necessitated owing to the deaths of incumbent MLAs Hullappa Yamanappa Meti in Bagalkot and Shamanur Shivashankarappa in Davangere. Both served as Ministers during Siddaramaiah’s previous tenure as Chief Minister.

After the notification on the bypolls, the State BJP announced Veerabhadrayya Charantimath as its candidate for Bagalkot and Srinivas T. Dasakariyappa for Davangere South. Both Mr. Charantimath and Mr. Srinivas filed their first set of nominations on Friday (March 20). They will file another set of nomination papers on March 23, after taking out a large procession with State leaders of the BJP.

However, the ruling Congress party is yet to finalise candidates in both the constituencies.

Although it has been decided that the Meti family would get the ticket, the feud among Mr. Meti’s children, three of four of whom are aspirants, is troubling the party. Mahadevi Meti, who had announced she would file nominations as an independent candidate, has mellowed down after a meeting with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, a close friend of her father. Her siblings — elder sister Bayakka and brothers Mallikarjun and Umesh — met the Chief Minister in Bengaluru on March 18.

“While Mallikarjun, Umesh, and Bayakka said that they would abide by the decision of the Chief Minister, Mahadevi is said to have demanded that the ticket may either be given to her or her brother Umesh. The Chief Minister assured them that the ticket would go to a member of the family and advised them to stop fighting and back the party nominee in one voice,’’ a senior Congress leader from Bagalkot said.