With this list, Congress continued to give prominence to children of its leaders as candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka.
Congress yet to announce candidature for the Kolar seat. (supplied)
The All-India Congress Committee on Friday, 29 February, declared nominees for three of the four remaining parliamentary seats — keeping the Kolar seat on hold — for Karnataka for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Congress had already declared nominees for 24 Lok Sabha seats from Karnataka, where children of five Cabinet ministers were given tickets.
In the new list, the sons of a former minister and an incumbent minister have been fielded from the Chikkaballapura and Scheduled Caste (SC)-reserved Chamarajanagara seats respectively.
Meanwhile, despite Chief Minister Siddaramiah holding talks on Thursday with dismayed leaders in Kolar over candidacy, the party did not announce a nominee on Friday.
After Congress hinted at giving a ticket to minister KH Muniyappa’s son-in-law Chikkapedanna, five party MLAs — including a Cabinet minister — threatened to resign.
However, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar pacified the disgruntled leaders.
In Chamarajanagara, Congress has given a ticket to Minister for Social Welfare Dr HC Mahadevappa’s son Sunil Bose.
The party was willing to field Mahadevappa but he urged the high command to give the ticket to his son.
With this, Congress has fielded six children of state Cabinet ministers for the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka.
Similarly, the party announced a ticket for former minister and incumbent MLC MR Seetharam’s son Raksha Ramaiah, who was the president of the Karnataka unit of Youth Congress.
The move is being seen as Congress’ way of giving prominence to the youth in ticket distribution.
In Ballari, which is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST), the party has fielded Sandur MLA Eregar Tukaram for the 7 May Lok Sabha elections.
The decision came amidst intense lobbying between Minister for Sports and Youth Empowerment B Nagendra and Tukaram.
The party gave the ticket to Tukaram after holding talks with its district-level leaders.
However, the party did not announce a candidate for the lone remaining seat, Kolar (SC), due to an ongoing rift between two factions.
On condition of anonymity, a Congress leader told South First: “Even though the chief minister pacified the disgruntled MLAs, the deliberations are still being made on whom to field from the SC-reserved segment.”
SCs appear to have divisions within themselves, including the once-less-privileged left and the once-more-privileged right.
The Congress leader noted: “A faction led by former minister Ramesh Kumar is demanding a ticket for the right, whereas minister KH Muniyappa is demanding a ticket for his son-in-law, who belongs to the left. This has become headache for the leadership to come to conclusion.”
He added: “The state leadership has held talks with the dissenting leaders and is yet to convey the message to the high command. The nominee is likely to be announced in a day or two.”
(Edited by Arkadev Ghoshal)
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