Vijayapura: While the BJP has already declared its candidates for the coming MLC elections for North West Teachers’ and Graduates Constituencies, the Congress is still weighing its options in order to finalise the candidates.
The BJP has already given tickets to sitting MLCs, Arun Shahapur for Teachers’ Constituency and Hamunath Nirani for Graduates’ Constituency. Shahapur, who is the native of Vijayapura District, has already won elections twice in the past. And if he wins this time too, then he will be creating a hat-trick. On the other hand, Hanumanth Nirani who is the native of Bagalakote District is trying his luck for the second time as he is the sitting MLC.
Both candidates have already started their campaign long before even Congress contemplating to announce its candidates.
According to sources, Congress Senior Politician Prakash Hukeri, who is a former MLA and MP from Belagavi District, S. B. Bannur from Bagalakote and Sangamesh Bableshwar from Vijayapura are in the race for Teachers’ segment. All the three members have reportedly met the party High Command and demanded tickets. A couple of leaders are also in the race for the Graduates’ Constituency. The party is likely to announce the candidature for both the segments only after the announcement of poll dates.
Meanwhile, Arun Shahapur said that he has already started touring the districts of the constituency which covers three districts, Vijayapura, Bagalakote and Belagavi.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced the candidates for upcoming North-West Teachers’ and Graduates’ Constituency even before the announcement of its poll dates.
A few weeks ago, BJP High Command declared sitting Legislative Council members of both the segments as candidates for the yet to be announced legislative council polls.
MLCs Shahapur and Nirani have been announced as the face for the North-West Teachers’ and Graduates’ segment, respectively.
“I am not only meeting the teachers in various taluks but also seeing that more registration of votes take place. As of now, we have over 19,000 voters, and hopefully, after completion of the addition and deletion process, we will have around 20,000 voters in this constituency,” said Shahapur.
Expressing confidence in his victory, he said that the teachers and the elected representative of the BJP are fully supporting him. “Since teachers irrespective of their caste and religions are supporting me, I am confident of winning the election again,” he said.
MLC Nirani, said that he is not surprised that the party announced tickets before the declaration of poll dates. He said that he will start campaigning for the polls soon after the end of the ongoing budget session. The poll dates for the N-W Teachers’ and Graduates’ segments are likely to be announced in mid-April. It may also be noted that this council polls span across 33 assembly constituencies of three districts.
