Karnataka bypolls: Congress may bank on old warhorses to retain seats

In the absence of known faces, ZP veterans may get ticket

September 26, 2019 01:09 am | Updated 04:57 pm IST - Bengaluru

Karnataka : Bengaluru : 25/09/2019 : Congress senior leaders Siddaramaiah, K R Ramesh Kumar, Bhimanna Kahndre and H K Patil  KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao at party office to discuss on by-elections on 25 September 2019.  Photo :V Sreenivasa Murthy/The Hindu.

Karnataka : Bengaluru : 25/09/2019 : Congress senior leaders Siddaramaiah, K R Ramesh Kumar, Bhimanna Kahndre and H K Patil KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao at party office to discuss on by-elections on 25 September 2019. Photo :V Sreenivasa Murthy/The Hindu.

To retain maximum number of seats and teach a fitting lesson to disqualified legislators, the Congress in all likelihood will field its warhorses in a majority of the 15 Legislative Assembly constituencies where byelections are scheduled for October 21.

Sources in the party said the former Lok Sabha memebr Prakash Hukkeri (Kagwad in Belagavi district), the former Speaker K.B. Koliwad (Ranebennur in Haveri district), the former MLA H.P. Manjunath (Hunsur), the former Minister Santosh Lad or senior leader Satyanarayana Reddy (Vijayanagar in Ballari district), and Lakkan Jarkiholi, brother of disqualified MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak, Belagavi district), are among the probables to get ticket to contest the byelections.

In the absence of known faces, veterans in the zilla panchayats are expected to get the party’s nod to contest. In some constituencies, the BJP’s defeated candidates in the 2018 Assembly elections are expected to get ticket, sources said.

With the Supreme Court yet to decide on the petitions of the disqualified legislators, the State Congress Election Committee will hold its crucial meeting here on Thursday to select candidates.

The Congress list is expected to be finalised this weekend and candidates are expected to file nominations on Monday, the last day for the process.

Filing nominations

With Mahalaya Amavasya falling on Saturday, candidates of the three major parties are expected to file their nominations on Monday, sources said. After short-listing the names, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee will send the list to the party central leadership for its approval. The party’s central leaders are expected to clear the list by Sunday, sources said.

On Thursday, the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao, KPCC working president Eshwar Khandre, AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka K.C. Venugopal and other senior leaders of the party would be meeting in a private hotel, in the absence of the party’s poll strategist and Vokkaliga leader D.K. Shivakumar.

Challenging task

As the Congress legislators who had won in 11 of the 15 constituencies in 2018 have been disqualified, the party faces a challenging task to identify winnable candidates in many segments. Since disqualified legislators have decided to contest on BJP ticket, despite protests by the saffron party cadre, elections in these segments would become a sort of a prestige battle between the Congress and its former MLAs.

Though the Congress will make a determined bid to wrest the seats, a majority of the workers and office-bearers at block, constituency, and district level have identified with the disqualified MLAs, believing that they would become Ministers in the BJP government if they emerge victorious in the byelections. The Yediyurappa government has kept Cabinet berths vacant to accommodate disqualified MLAs.

Opposition to fielding Arshad

Congress leaders from Shivajingaar constituency in Benglauru are learnt to have strongly opposed fielding Rizwan Arshad, MLC, from the segment for the bypoll.

Supporters of Mr. Arshad and other minority community leaders from Shivajingar are learnt to have indulged in a verbal duel in front of leaders here on Wednesday. Party leader and AICC secretary Salim Ahmed, Minority Cell chairman Sayyed Ahmed and many others have opposed fielding Mr. Rizwan. Minority community leaders have pledged to support any candidate but Mr. Arshad.

They argued that the party had given many opportunities to Mr. Arshad. He was fielded in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The bypoll in the constituency has been necessitated following the resignation of the former Minister Roshan Baig.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.