New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released its first list of 189 candidates for the next month’s Karnataka assembly elections and fielded 52 new faces and eight women.

The list included 52 new faces, including some Congress turncoats

The BJP’s candidate list for the 2023 Karnataka polls also included thirty-two candidates belonging to OBCs, 30 Scheduled Castes and 16 Scheduled Tribes.

In the Karnataka BJP candidate list 2023, nine are doctors, five advocates, three academicians, one retired IAS officer, one retired IPS officer, three retired government employees and eight social activists.

BJP candidate list 2023 has been selected to bring in a new generation of leadership and fresh ideas, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is Karnataka poll-in-charge for the party, said at the press conference.

The list included 52 new faces, including some Congress turncoats. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has been fielded from Shiggaon constituency, his current seat.

The BJP’s election committee met in Delhi on April 9 to finalise the names for 224 assembly seats. Bommai, speaking to media, said that a second list will be out soon. Other key BJP leaders Ramesh Jarkiholi and Govind M Karjol will contest from Gokak and Mudhol, respectively.

The list was released at the party headquarters in Delhi by BJP’s Karnataka election in-charge minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh in the presence of other leaders. Arun Singh said that the list includes 52 fresh faces, while there are 32 candidates from the OBC category, 30 from the Scheduled Castes and 16 from the Scheduled Tribes.

Expressing confidence about the party`s victory, Singh said that the people of the state trust Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. While on the other hand, he alleged that the Congress is losing space in Karnataka and is crippled by infighting while the Janata Dal-Secular is “a sinking ship”. Karnataka will go to polls on May 10. The counting of votes will be taken up on May 13.