BJP infighting surfaces early as Pratap Simha and Nagendra stake claim to contest from Chamaraja Assembly seat

Even as the next Karnataka Assembly elections are more than two years away, jockeying for the BJP ticket from the Chamaraja Assembly segment in Mysuru has begun, with former MP Pratap Simha and former MLA L. Nagendra openly staking their claims.

Currently represented by Congress MLA Harish Gowda, who defeated Mr. Nagendra in the 2023 Assembly polls, the Chamaraja seat has emerged as a flashpoint within the BJP.

Mr. Simha, who was denied renomination by the BJP for the Mysuru Lok Sabha seat in 2024 after serving two consecutive terms, has recently announced his shift to State politics. He has stated unequivocally that he intends to contest from the Chamaraja Assembly segment in the next elections.

His public declaration triggered a sharp reaction from Mr. Nagendra, who is the BJP’s Mysuru city president. Mr. Nagendra asserted that the decision on the party’s candidate rests solely with the party high command and questioned Mr. Simha’s absence from the BJP’s campaign in the Chamaraja segment during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Emphasising his long association with the party, Mr. Nagendra said he has been a loyal BJP worker in Mysuru for over 30 years. Though he lost the Chamaraja seat in 2023, he claimed to have secured more votes than in 2018, when he had won the constituency.

Dismissing Mr. Simha’s assertions, Mr. Nagendra said he was confident of being renominated by the BJP and winning the seat in the next Assembly elections. He urged the former MP not to confuse voters and party workers with premature statements.

Adding another dimension to the contest, neurologist Dr. Shushrutha Gowda, who joined the BJP in 2024, announced that he too is an aspirant for the Chamaraja seat.

Meanwhile, Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, MP for Mysuru, who replaced Mr. Simha as the BJP’s candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, said party aspirants were free to express their ambitions. However, he stressed that the final decision on the candidate would be taken by the party leadership.

Political observers pointed to the pact between the BJP and JD (S) and did not rule out the possibility of the regional party staking a claim over the Chamaraja seat, which is dominated by Vokkaligas, in a possible seat-sharing arrangement between the electoral partners.