Close on the heels of the BJP announcing Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 parliamentary elections, the saffron party and its breakaway outfit, the KJP, have reportedly decided to come closer by retaining former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s son B.Y. Raghavendra as the Lok Sabha candidate for the Shimoga seat.
After Mr Yeddyurappa who is the KJP state president, extended support to the candidature of Mr Modi, it is only a matter of time before the former chief minister returns to his parent party, said sources, adding that he might be given the responsibility of leading the BJP in Karnataka in the Lok Sabha elections. If Mr Yeddyurappa returns to the BJP, there would be no confusion over the BJP candidate for Shimoga with sitting MP Mr Raghavendra likely to be fielded for a second term.
There were reports that Mr Yeddyurappa may himself decide to contest the Lok Sabha polls and make it to parliament to help his ‘friend’ Narendra Modi. In such a situation, he would have to vacate the Shikaripur assembly seat and make his son contest the ensuing by-election.
But Mr Yeddyurappa is not too confident of the victory prospects of his son in Shikarpur, especially after the disastrous defeat of the opposition JD(S) to the Congress in the Mandya and Bengaluru rural Lok Sabha bypolls. The JD(S) which had won these two seats in 2009, lost them to the Congress with the decision to force a bypoll.