Karnataka Election: BJP workers protest against Amit Shah; top developments

Yeddyurappa announced his son will not be contesting from Varuna seat against Siddaramaiah's son Yathendra in Karnataka election

The BJP on Monday released the fourth list of seven candidates for the May 12 elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly. According to a list finalised by BJP's Central Election Committee, G R Pravin Patil will contest from Bhadravati while Jaggesh will be party's candidate from Yeshvanthapura. The party has fielded Lallesh Reddy from B T M. Layout assembly constituency, H Lilavathi from Ramanagaram, Nandini Gowda Kanakapura, H K Suresh from Belur and J Preetham Gow from Hassan. With this, the BJP has announced 220 candidates leaving names of four candidates. Earlier today, Yeddyurappa at a rally in Mysuru announced that his son will not be contesting from Varuna seat against Siddaramaiah's son Yathendra, as projected earlier. Following the announcement, BJP workers created ruckus throwing chairs around. Yeddyurappa himself requested workers to calm down. Yeddyurappa further expressed confidence on winning the election and said, "I am going to be Chief Minister, it is as certain as the existence of sun and moon. I'm going to spend one day in each constituency to ensure my party's victory." Varuna was being seen as the battleground for the sons of Yeddyurappa and Siddaramaiah. The party had earlier released announced 72, 82, and 59 candidates respectively in three lists.

The elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly will take place in a single phase on May 12 while counting of votes will begin on May 15.

Top 10 developments around Karnataka elections, BJP candidate's list, more

1. Voting hours for Karnataka elections extended: In view of the hot weather conditions, the Election Commission on Monday extended polling for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly elections by an hour. The polling will begin at 7 a.m. and will continue till 6 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. "... in view of extreme heat in Karnataka and due to introduction of VVPAT, it is necessary to extend polling hours to facilitate all voters to cast their votes even at late hours," an EC statement said.

2. BJP releases fourth list of candidates for Karnataka: The BJP on Monday released the fourth list of seven candidates for the May 12 elections. According to a list finalised by BJP's Central Election Committee, G R Pravin Patil will contest from Bhadravati while Jaggesh will be party's candidate from Yeshvanthapura. The party has fielded Lallesh Reddy from B T M. Layout assembly constituency, H Lilavathi from Ramanagaram, Nandini Gowda Kanakapura, H K Suresh from Belur and J Preetham Gow from Hassan. With this, the BJP has announced 220 candidates leaving names of four candidates. The party had earlier released announced 72, 82, and 59 candidates respectively in three lists.

3. BJP candidates 'highly polluted', says Moily: Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily today mocked at the list of BJP candidates for the Karnataka Assembly polls, calling it "highly polluted, criminalised and poisoned". "Yeddyurappa's BJP is nothing but the Karnataka Janata Party floated by Yeddyurappa. He has taken revenge on all the BJP members and is giving tickets to KJP people. The BJP list is highly polluted, criminalised and poisoned," he said, adding "BJP is a divided party now".

4. My son not contesting from Varuna constituency, says Yeddyurappa: In a surprise announcement, BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa on Monday said his son B Y Vijayendra would not contest from Varuna constituency in Mysuru against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son Yatindra, triggering angry protests from party workers that led to a police lathi-charge. Bringing an end to what was expected to be a tough face-off between the sons of two state veterans, Yeddyurappa made the announcement at a meeting organised by the party at Nanjanagudu near Mysuru, just a day before the deadline for filing of nominations ends.

5. BJP workers protest against Amit Shah in Karnataka: Soon after Yeddyurappa's announcement that his son would not contest from Varuna constituency in Mysuru, angry BJP workers flung chairs and other furniture and raised slogans against party president Amit Shah and even tried to stop the cars of Vijayendra and other leaders as they were leaving. Police said they made a lathi-charge to bring the situation under control. "Vijayendra is not filing his nomination today.. a common man (party worker) will be fielded and he will be filing the nomination," Yeddyurappa said, without citing any reason. "With folded hands I request all of you to support and bless that candidate and make him win," he said. The BJP has not so far officially announced any candidate for Varuna constituency, but Vijayendra had been campaigning for weeks and even taken a house on rent there. Vijayendra tweeted saying he wholeheartedly stood by and supported the party's decision "in all circumstances."

6. 1,127 nominations for Karnataka elections: The Election Commission had received 1,127 nominations for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly polls till Monday, the penultimate day before the deadline ends, the poll panel said. Of these, 174 were filed by ruling Congress' candidates, 178 from the BJP, 141 from the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), 457 independents and the remaining from other parties and regional outfits. These also include more than one nomination by certain candidates.

7. BJP says party not allowed to campaign freely in Karnataka: The BJP on Monday alleged the state administration was not allowing it to campaign freely and was applying rules selectively to create "favourable conditions" for the ruling Congress in the May 12 Karnataka assembly elections. Party president Amit Shah was disallowed from garlanding a statue of B R Ambedkar during poll campaign and its workers were not even allowed to hoist party flags atop their houses, BJP General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Muralidhar Rao told reporters.

He alleged state officials involved in the election work had threatened the party workers and asked them to remove the flags. Taking note of this, the BJP has decided to launch a statewide 'namma mane BJP mane' (our house is BJP house) campaign on April 25 where the party workers will hoist party flags atop their houses.

"As many as 11 lakh (1.1 million) party workers would participate in the campaign," he added.

8. BJP calls Rahul failed a failure: BJP said that the "impeachment" of the opposition party began with the 2014 elections and will end with the Karnataka Assembly elections. The ruling party also said that the BJP-Congress fight was all about "democracy vs dynasty" and that in the end democracy will triumph and the dynasty fail. "It is time to impeach the Congress... the people started the impeachment process against the Congress in 2014 (general elections) which will be completed with the Karnataka results," Bharatiya Janata Party Spokesperson Sambit Patra said.

9. Yeddyurappa's confidant Karandlaje not in BJP's fourth list: The party named only seven candidates in its fourth list. Karandlaje, a Lok Sabha MP from Udupi-Chickmagalur, has been actively campaigning for the party and had also reportedly expressed her wish to contest the assembly elections. Karandlaje has been a Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj in Karnataka, when Yeddyurappa was chief minister. Having been praised for her work in Yeddyurappa's cabinet, Karandlaje possibly felt that she would get a ticket to contest assembly election.

10. List of Congress candidates: The Congress had on April 15 released its list of 218 candidates. The party is yet to name candidates for the remaining six out of the 224 assembly seats in Karnataka.