Congress has no candidate for Shivamogga, may gift seat to JD(S)

BENGALURU: Former JD(S) legislator Madhu Bangarappa is likely to be the candidate of the JD(S)-Congress coalition for Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat. None of the Congress leaders from the district is ready to fight the bypoll, citing their ‘poor’ financial condition.
This comes a day after AICC general secretary KC Venugopal and former CM Siddaramaiah jointly announced that the party would contest Shivamogga and Ballari Lok Sabha seats, while leaving Mandya to the JD(S).It is said that the Congress leaders had bargained hard for Shivamogga seat with JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda at a meeting in Kumara Krupa guest house on Tuesday.
KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao on Wednesday held one-on-one meetings with former ministers Kagodu Thimmappa and Kimmane Ratnakar, former MLA Belur Gopalakrishna, former CADA chairman Sundaresh and Shivamogga district president Srinivas to persuade them to contest the bypoll, but in vain.
While Kagodu cited his poor health as a reason, Gopalakrishna washed off his hands stating that he’s not interested in national politics. Ratnakar apparently told the leaders that he would contest only if the party met his election expenses and promised ticket to him in the 2019 election, irrespective of the outcome of the November 3 bypoll.
However, on record, Kimmane said he’s not interested to contest the bypoll as the tenure of new members will be less than six months.
This has left the state leaders to wait for a direction from AICC Rahul Gandhi to decide whether they should field a candidate from the Congress or gift the seat to the JD(S). The party is worried that allowing the JD(S) to contest the bypoll from Shivamogga may result in the latter staking claim for ticket in 2019 election. “A final decision in this regard will be taken during Rahul’s visit to Bengaluru on October 13,” said a senior leader.
Getting a whiff of what’s happening in the Congress, Gowda in Vijayapura told reporters that the JD(S) will field Madhu Bangarappa from Shivamogga, who is in Denmark now, after discussing with the Congress leaders.
No decision yet on Ballari seat
Meanwhile, the party had to cancel its meeting to choose candidate for the Ballari seat as most of the MLAs from the constituency were out of the city owing to their prior engagements. The meeting is rescheduled for Thursday.
Along with Ballari MLA B Nagendra’s brother Venkatesh Prasad, former ZP vice president Nettakallappa is also a contender for the seat. “My brother is aspiring to be the Congress candidate. If he gets, its fine or we’ll abide by the party’s decision and work for the victory of the party candidate,” Nagendra told reporters.
Cong MLC’s son from Ramanagara joins BJP
At a time when the BJP is struggling to zero in on a candidate in Ramanagara to take on chief minister HD Kumaraswamy’s wife Anitha, former MLA and current Congress MLC CM Lingappa’s son Chandrashekar has joined the BJP.
Speculation was rife that the BJP may announce Chandrashekar as its official candidate for the Ramanagara bypoll scheduled for November 3. Over the last week, hectic parleys were held between the BJP and Chandrashekar soon after the Congress decided to forgo the Ramanagara MLA seat to its ally, JD(S). Chandrashekar, who was an aspirant for the Ramanagara seat, had vented his ire against the Congress in public and decided to join the BJP. Chandrashekar, son of Lingappa, an aide of Congress strongman DK Shivakumar, joined the party in the presence of BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa and former Channapatna MLA CP Yogeshwar.
Chandrashekar told the media that he joined the BJP on his own volition and it has nothing to do with his father’s relationship with the Congress.