Karnataka elections: "Will ensure not a single woman left behind," says BJP Mahila Morcha chief

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 12 : Ahead of the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mahila Morcha president Vanathi Srinivasan on Wednesday said the party will ensure that not a single woman is left behind without supporting the BJP.

"Being the Mahila Morcha, we will concentrate on women voters. A big shift has been taken in Uttar Pradesh, Mpur, Goa and Gujarat and the confidence that women show to BJP is across the nation. We want to capture that support. We want to ensure that no single women supporter is left behind without extending support to BJP," Srinivasan told .

"In all government schemes, more than 50 per cent of beneficiaries were women. We uploaded 1 crore selfies with all the women beneficiaries and uploaded them on the NaMo app. In Karnataka, we will club the central scheme with state schemes," she added.

BJP on Tuesday released the first list of candidates for 189 seats out of 224 seats for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections with 52 new candidates getting tickets.

While addressing the press conference BJP's national general secretary Arun Singh said, "52 new faces, eight women, nine doctors, five lawyers, one retired IPS officer, three retired government employees and eight social activists have been given tickets.

He further mentioned that BY Vijendran who is the son of former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has also been given the ticket.

The party fielded former Bengaluru police commissioner Bhaskar Rao from the Chamrajpet constituency. BJP national general secretary CT Ravi will contest from the Chikmagalur constituency.

State Ministers - Shashikala Jolai, R Ashok, Prabho Chauhan, Shankar Muniyakappa, Muniratna, ST Somashekar, VC Patil, Varity Vasuraj, Murgesh Nir, CC Patil, Sunil Kumar, Shivram Hebbar have been given tickets.

State Assembly Speaker Vishwaser Hegde has been given the ticket.

"V Somanna MLA from Govindraj Nagar has been given a ticket from Chamaraj Nagar and Varuna Assembly. It will directly challenge Congress leader Siddaramaiah," he added.

In this list, tickets have been given to Lingayat-51, Vokkalinga-41, Kurba-7, SC-30, ST-16 and 32 from the OBC community.

Nomination filing for the state assembly elections will begin on Thursday, April 13.

Meanwhile, supporters of sitting BJP MLA from Belagavi North, l Benake staged a protest on Tuesday evening after he was denied a ticket in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections.

Further, supporters of BJP MLA Mahadevappa Yadawad protested in Ramdurg constituency in Belagavi over the ticket being denied to him. Chikka Revana who joined the BJP recently got the ticket from the constituency.

According to BJP sources, former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar has started showing a rebellious attitude and has been called to Delhi.

"Former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar has started showing a rebellious attitude. In fact, the party's high command is not in favour of fielding him, but Shettar does not agree. He has been called to Delhi. Shettar will be asked to work for the party. It is unlikely he will get a ticket for the upcoming elections," party sources said.

BJP sources also mentioned that the wife of the late union minister Ananth Kumar will not get a ticket in the upcoming elections.

"No ticket will be given to Tejaswini Ananth Kumar but she may be given a larger role in the orgsation in the time to come," sources said.