The candidate lists announced by the BJP for the May 10 Assembly polls has created a rift within the party, with many senior dissident leaders protesting the party's decision. BJP has released two lists of candidates so far, with only one remaining for 12 Assembly seats. Some big names like ex-CM Jagadish Shettar, and ex-Dy CM Laxman Sangappa Savadi among others being excluded from the list has started a furor. Congress MLA Priyank Kharge has now taken a dig at the BJP leadership in the state, rather than commenting on the infighting.
When asked about BJP's strategy of fielding some new faces for the Assembly polls, Kharge said it is not strategy, rather the question of credibility. He further alleged that BJP has no more credible faces in the party left to fetch votes.
"...They (BJP) don't have any face that would get them votes. In Ballari, Amit Shah said, 'Vote for us on Modi ji's face.' This was while the CM sat beside him. It shows there are no credible faces in BJP. Who is their CM candidate? Let Bommai, the incumbent CM, say that he is going to be the CM. Can they do that? No, because their saleable faces are not getting votes," Kharge was quoted as saying.
Congress' CM face?
Kharge's remarks comes amid the ongoing debate over who is going to be the CM face from Congress. The party's national president Mallikarjuna Kharge refused to name the party's CM candidate despite expressing confidence of winning in the state elections. He simply dismissed the question saying the newly-elected MLAs would decide on a CM after the elections are over as naming a candidate would lead to infighting in the party.
Meanwhile, CM Basavaraj Bommai said the senior BJP leaders are talking with the dissatisfied leaders and dissidence will end soon. He told reporters on Thursday that with the second list of candidates released, candidates need to be announced for the remaining 12 Assembly seats. On various leaders who quit the BJP, Bommai said changing the parties has become very common in politics.
Bommai also claimed that Congress will not come to power as it did not have the candidates for nearly 60 to 65 constituencies and "so they are into importing the candidates of other parties".
