Bengaluru: With the BJP High Command most likely to deny seats to the aged and unpopular MPs in Karnataka, the party is looking for fielding new candidates in as many as 13 Lok Sabha (LS) Constituencies in the State for the forthcoming polls.

Following the political retirement of Chamarajanagar MP V. Sreenivasa Prasad, former CM D.V. Sadananda Gowda and a few others due to age factor, the BJP Central leadership is looking for popular faces in as many as 13 LS Constituencies.

 The party is likely to deny tickets to V. Sreenivasa Prasad (Chamarajanagar), D.V. Sadananda Gowda (Bengaluru North), Shivakumar Udasi (Haveri), B.N. Bachhegowda (Chikkaballapur), G.S. Basavaraju (Tumakuru), Mangala Suresh Angadi (Belagavi), P.C. Gaddigoudar (Bagalkot), Ramesh Jigajinagi (Vijayapura), Raja Amaresh Nayak (Raichur), Devendrappa (Ballari), Ananth Kumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada) and a few others, for one reason or the other. 

The BJP is looking for credible alternative candidates in these Constituencies to retain the seats it had won in the 2019 LS polls.

The BJP had won 25 of the 28 LS seats in the 2019 polls, even though the Congress-JD(S) coalition Government was then in power. Now being the Opposition in the State, the BJP hopes to win at least 20 of the 28 seats in next year’s LS polls and help Modi becoming the PM again. The ruling Congress in the State is gearing up to win the same number of seats for boosting the Congress party’s chances of returning to power at the Centre.