Cong treads cautiously amid Shivakumar-Siddaramaiah tussle, on other important seats

BENGALURU: The Congress party, which released its first list of 124 candidates has for now cleared the air on some of the seats from where a couple of heavyweights will be contesting. Of the names announced, 61 are sitting MLAs.

After much speculation over whether Siddaramaiah will contest from Kolar, go by the party high command’s advice and contest from Varuna, or head back to Badami, from where he had won last time, the party has announced that he will be the candidate from Varuna, while his son Yathindra’s fate will be known in the next list.

Also, Siddaramaiah may still choose to contest from another seat — Kolar or Badami — but there is no clarity on it yet. Another seat where there was some confusion was Nanjangud where H C Mahadevappa had planned to contest. However, following the untimely death of R Dhruvanarayana, he had announced that he will step aside in favour of the late leader’s son Darshan, who has been announced as the candidate from that seat while H C Mahadevappa will contest from T Narsipur. This means his son Sunil Bose may have to wait his chance.

While Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar will be contesting from his home ground Kanakapura, he will not be contesting from Ramanagara as the party has announced Iqbal Hussain as its candidate. In Devanahalli, Siddaramaiah has got his candidate to back down and K H Muniyappa will be contesting from there.

Five-time MLA Tanveer Sait says he’s not fully recovered from the attack on him two years ago.

Though Tanveer Sait had indicated his unwillingness to contest the election on health grounds, his name has been announced from his home turf Narasimharaja constituency in Mysuru. While Puttanna will be contesting from Rajajinagar, Kusuma H is the party candidate from RR Nagar.

The party has withheld announcing names in constituencies where there is a tug-of-war between Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah. It has also not announced candidates in Shiggaon, which is Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s seat, Kolar, where Siddaramaiah may contest, Pulakeshi Nagar, where Akhanda Srinivas Murthy is the sitting MLA, and Chamaraja constituency in Mysuru. The party has also not announced its candidate against G Janardhana Reddy, the founder of Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha (KRPP), in Gangavathi where Iqbal Ansari is a strong contender, and in Gubbi, Sidlaghatta, Thirthahalli, Shikaripura, Honnali, Chikkamagalur, Bilagi among others.

With Ramya aka Divyaspandana rumoured to make her entry into state politics, the Congress has not announced its candidates for Padmanabhanagar, Channapatna and Mandya, and in KR Pet, Mahalakshmi Layout and Yeshwantpur where the MLAs had switched sides. In Pavagada, the party has opted for Venkatesh in place of his father and sitting MLA Venkataramanappa.

In Mahadevapura, there seems to be some confusion as the Congress had earlier announced that currently Independent candidate H Nagesh will be its candidate. However, the list mentions T Nagesh, a local Congress leader. State party president D K Shivakumar is in talks with the AICC leaders to clear the air on the official candidate.

Caste Composition

Of the 124 candidates announced, 30 are Lingayats, 19 Vokkaligas, 22 SCs, nine STs, eight Muslims, six each of Idiga and Kuruba candidates, five each of Reddys and Brahmins, three Bunts, two Marathas, and one each from Christian, Mogaveera, Uppara, Rajput, Jain, Kodava, Vysya and other communities.

All In The Family

While veteran leader K H Muniyappa will be contesting from Devanahalli, his daughter Roopakala M will be contesting from KGF. Veteran Shamanur Shivashankarappa will contest from Davanagere South while his son S S Mallikarjun will contest from Davanagere North. M Krishnappa will be constesting from Vijayanagar while son Priyakrishna is the contestant from Govindarajnagar.

From BTM Layout, veteran leader Ramalinga Reddy will be the contestant while his daughter Sowmya Reddy will contest from Jayanagar. While Darshan will contest from Nanjangud, B K Harisprasad’s nephew Rakshit Shivaram is the candidate from Belthangady.

New Names In The List

The Congress list includes the names of 12 first-timers. They are Mahendra Tammannavar (Kudachi), Anup Iyengar (Malleswaram), Ganesh Prasad (Gundlupet), Darshan Dhruvanarayan (Nanjangud), Rakshit Shivaram (Belthangady), Prakash Koliwad (Ranebennur), Dinesh Hegde (Kundapur), Ponnanna (Virajpet), H V Venkatesh (Pavagada), Shreyas Patel (Holenarsipur), Murali Mohan (Sakleshpur) and Krishnappa (Sulia).