Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Wednesday said that the party had announced candidates for 189 seats yesterday of which it will win a minimum of 125 in the state assembly polls, while adding that the second list will be released by tonight.

Speaking to ANI, Yediyurappa said, “Out of 189 seats that were announced yesterday, 52 are new. We will win a minimum of 125 to 130 seats out of the 189 seats that were announced yesterday. We are happy with the announcement. We will form govt in Karnataka. I think the second list of candidates will be released by tonight.” When asked about KS Eshwarappa quitting the electoral politics, the former Chief Minister said that he has voluntarily written to party’s national president JP Nadda regarding not contesting the elections.

“Eshwarappa voluntarily wrote a letter to the party president that he will work for the party and he does not want to contest,” he said.

Talking about Jagadish Shettar, a former Karnataka Chief Minister and six-time BJP MLA whose name was missing from the first list of the list released by the party yesterday, Yediyurappa said that there is a maximum chance of his name appearing in the second list.

“99 per cent Jagadish Shettar (former Karnataka CM) will be given an election ticket,” he said.

When asked about Congress moving the Election Commission regarding the issues in the voter list, the BJP leader said that the party is doing so as it is aware of its defeat in the polls.

“That means they know that they are going to lose the elections. They have given such statements previously also,” he said.

Meanwhile, BJP on Tuesday released the first list of candidates for 189 seats out of 224 seats for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections with 52 new candidates getting tickets.

While addressing the press conference BJP’s National General Secretary Arun Singh said, “We have released a list of 189 candidates. 52 out of 189 are fresh candidates”.

“52 new faces, 8 women, 9 doctors, 5 lawyers, one retired IPS officer, three retired government employees, and 8 social activists have been given tickets,” he added.

He further mentioned that Vijendran who is the son of former Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa has also been given the ticket.

“Yeddyurappa’s son Vijendran has been given the ticket in his place. Ministers- Shashikala Jolai, R Ashok, Prabho Chauhan, Shankar Muniyakappa, Muniratna, ST Somashekar, VC Patil, Varity Vasuraj, Murgesh Nirani, CC Patil, Sunil Kumar, Shivram Hebbar have been given tickets.

“Vishwaser Hegde (Speaker) has been given the ticket. V Somanna MLA from Govindraj Nagar has been given a ticket from Chamaraj Nagar and Varuna Assembly. It will directly challenge Congress leader Siddaramaiah,” he added.

In this list, tickets have been given to Lingayat-51, Vokkalinga-41, Kurba-7, SC-30, ST-16 and 32 from the OBC community.

Karnataka will go to Assembly polls on May 10 and the counting of votes will be done on May 13.