BENGALURU: The Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) that meets in New Delhi on Tuesday is likely to release the party’s second list of candidates for the May 10 Karnataka Assembly polls ahead of former All-India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Kolar on April 9. State Congress leaders are expected to camp in Delhi from Monday evening itself to get a ticket for themselves or for their aides.
The Congress has already released the names of 124 candidates, including Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah who will fight from Varuna. The issue of Siddaramaiah contesting from a second seat — Kolar — and candidates for key seats, including Channapatna where there are rumours of former minister CP Yogeshwar quitting BJP to Congress, will be discussed at the meeting, informed sources told The New Indian Express.
The party is likely to decide on its candidates for KR Pet, Yeshwantpur and KR Puram segments. The Congress has kept these seats vacant expecting that ministers KC Narayana Gowda, ST Somashekar and Byrathi Basavaraj will join the party ahead of the polls. “I will not talk about it… let their party decide,”
KPCC president DK Shivakumar said when asked about some ministers from the Bommai Cabinet joining the Congress. On chances of Siddaramaiah being fielded from two seats, Shivakumar said the high command will take a call. He reiterated that despite many ticket aspirants, there was no confusion in the party.
“There is internal bickering in the BJP. That is the reason for them not releasing their candidate list. JDS too has a similar problem as many of its leaders have joined the Congress. The people will reject the BJP in the May 10 election,” he said.
According to sources, the Congress has finalised the second list except for 35 seats where there are two aspirants — one from the Siddaramaiah camp and the other from the Shivakumar camp. But for the remaining 65 seats, consensus candidates have already been decided.
Will Akhanda contest from Pulikeshi Nagar?
As Pulikeshi Nagar MLA R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy’s name did not figure in the Congress’ first list, there was speculation about him missing the bus even in the second list. Following this, his sympathisers, including former ministers Krishna Byregowda, Zameer Ahmed Khan and Dinesh Gundurao and Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad, called on Siddaramaiah along with Akhanda on Sunday. Akhanda Srinivas Murthy’s name was not announced at first as minorities had expressed concern over his candidature after the 2020 DJ Halli riots, sources added.
