Bengaluru Central: Hariprasad among Congress frontrunners

BENGALURU: Contrary to popular belief that the Congress always chooses a candidate from a minority community for the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat, the party is considering BK Hariprasad, a backward community leader said to be close to the party high command.
Besides Hariprasad, the party is considering Saleem Ahmed, MLC Rizwan Arshad, the party’s candidate in 2014, R Roshan Baig, former minister and Shivajinagar MLA, and former MP HT Sangliana, a Christian.These names came last week during closed-door consultations held by Yashomati Chandrakant Thakur, AICC secretary.
“We only obtained opinions from leaders and aspiring candidates. We’ll follow the procedure and the high command will take the final call,” Thakur said.
Ever since the constituency was formed in 2009, the Congress has always fielded a candidate from a minority community but never won. Now, it has reason to believe a minority candidate could win. Of five assembly segments it won in the constituency in the 2018 assembly polls, four MLAs (Sarvagnanagar, Shantinagar, Shivajinagar and Chamarajpet) are from minority communities.
In 2009, Congress fielded Sangliana and in 2014, it tfielded Arshad, a Muslim, who bagged 39% of votes polled. He lost against incumbent PC Mohan (BJP), who polled 5.6 lakh votes (51.8%). The party believes with concerted efforts by its MLAs from the constituency and support of its ally, the JD(S), it can wrest the seat from BJP this time.
“The initial signs look good for the alliance, particularly in Bengaluru,” JD(S) spokesperson Ramesh Babu said, emphasising the Congress would prefer a minority candidate. “If HD Deve Gowda contests from Bengaluru North, it’ll have a ripple effect on the other two seats in Bengaluru.”
The names collected at Friday’s consultation will be submitted to KC Venugopal, AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, and party observers for each constituency will discuss them. The Pradesh Election Committee will prepare a report based on these opinions and the screening committee will prepare a final shortlist.
While Congress and JD(S) yet to agree on seat sharing, sources say candidates could be announced by February-end. “Irrespective of the candidate, it is a Congress tradition to field a Christian or Muslim from Bengaluru Central and that will continue this time also,” said NA Haris, Shanthinagar MLA, who says he’s also a contender.
Meanwhile, actor Praksh Raj, a vocal critic of the BJP and PM Narendra Modi, has kicked off his campaign. “If they are really committed to secular values, Congress and JD(S) should support me as a consensual candidate to defeat the BJP,” Raj told TOI.
However, Congress and JD(S) leaders confirmed their parties will not support Raj. “While his secular credentials are unquestionable, his decision to enter the fray is misguided,” Saleem Ahmed said.
For North and South
Former ministers Ramalinga Reddy and M Krishnappa were considered for Bengaluru South, but sources said both are uninterested. Krishnappa’s son and former MLA Priya Krishna is among the aspirants.
For Bengaluru North, MLC M Narayanaswamy, former ministers MR Seetharam and HM Revanna and party city president M Rajkumar are among the front-runners. Sitting MP DK Suresh is the only name on the list for the Bengaluru Rural seat.