BSY announces Kollegal nominee a year in advance!

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Assembly polls may still be one year away but former CM and veteran BJP leader, B.S.Yediyurappa has already declared sitting Kollegal MLA N. Mahesh as the BJP candidate for the next election. M a h e s h was elected from the Kollegal Reserved constituency on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the 2018 elections but got sacked from the party after hobnobbing with the BJP. Now, he has identified himself with the BJP camp and is planning to contest on the lotus symbol in the 2023 Assembly elections. There are 5-6 contenders for the constituency and the sudden announcement of Mahesh’s candidature has shocked them.

Yediyurappa who was here in connection with a religious function at Gowdahalli village in Yalandur taluk of Chamajanagar on Wednesday, addressed a public meeting where he announced Mahesh as the BJP candidate from Kollegal. “You had sent Mahesh to the Assembly last year. Send him to the lower house next year too for the development of the constituency”.

This came as a big surprise to ticket aspirants like former MLA, G.N. Nanjundaswamy, Chamarajanagar MP V. Srinivasaprasad’s son-in-law Dr Mohan, Police Inspector B. Puttawswamy and Kinakahalli Rachaiah, who were sharing the dais with the Lingayat leader. Yediyurappa’s sudden announcement is bound to create fissures within the BJP as they had expected the party to pick a suitable candidate for the constituency due to people’s unhappiness over the incumbent MLA.