Bengaluru, 20 March

Former chief minister and senior BJP leader BS Yediyurappa said on Wednesday the list of candidates for the remaining five Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka would be finalised on 22 March.

The BJP last week announced its first list of 20 nominees for the coming elections in Karnataka, which has a total of 28 constituencies. Its alliance partner JD(S) has already announced that it would contest in three seats -- Hassan, Mandya and Kolar -- though there is no official announcement by the BJP to that effect.

According to some reports, the BJP is reluctant to cede Kolar seat to the JD(S). S Muniswamy is the incumbent Kolar BJP MP. “Yesterday (On Tuesday), we had a detailed discussion on the remaining five seats with the Union Home Minister (Amit Shah) and BJP national president JP Nadda. The final decision will be announced on 22 March after a discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since it is an alliance between BJP and the JD(S), this time it will be possible to win all the 28 seats,” Yediyurappa told reporters in the national capital.

BJP swept the 2019 general elections bagging 25 seats, while an independent backed by the party also won. The Congress and JD(S) who fought the elections together back then secured one seat each.

On JD(S) reportedly unhappy over the issue of seat-sharing, Yediyurappa said: “All that I would like to say is all the JD(S) leaders including former Prime Minister and party patriarch HD Deve Gowda and former Chief Minister and his son HD Kumaraswamy will be with us. Once they agree to the decision that our party high command will take, all things will be set right.”

“We will try to give them those seats, which they are expecting,” added Yediyurappa, a member of the BJP's Parliamentary Board.