The state Congress seems to be engaged in a firefighting exercise to mollify those who were denied tickets for the May 5 elections.
The party is facing severe opposition in many Assembly seats, including Mandya, Srirangapatna, Chikballapur, Bhadravathi, Kaup, Channapatna, Hebbal, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Rajajinagar, Bangalore South, Mahalakshmi Layout, Hiriyur, Mahadevapura, Sirsi, Haliyal, Bellary Urban and other constituencies.
On Wednesday, rebel star M H Ambareesh, who had raised a banner of revolt after the party high command gave a ticket to Ravindra Srikantaiah for the Srirangapattna seat, had to face the ire of the party workers when he went to Mandya to file his nomination. Srikantaiah has filed his nomination from both Srirangapatana. A Krishnappa, who is also KPCC vice-president, was denied a ticket to contest from K R Puram segment. He is now contesting from Hiriyur on a JD(S) ticket.
In Chikballapur, DCC president Anjinappa, who was a ticket aspirant, had charged that former CM S M Krishna had played spoilsport in the district by denying tickets to deserving candidates.
At Kaup in Udupi district, former Congress MLA Vasantha Salian deserted the party after being denied ticket and has filed nomination on a JD(S) ticket. The Congress, at the eleventh hour, had given ticket to former Lok Sabha member Vinaya Kumar Sorake for the Kaup seat. Both Salian and Sorake filed their papers on Wednesday.
In Bhadravathi, Congress candidate C M Ibrahim filed his papers amidst strong opposition from the party workers as the ticket was denied to B K Sangameshwar, the sitting party MLA. Sangameshwar is now fighting as an independent candidate. However, the party succeeded in mollifying former minister H M Revanna, who was denied ticket in Hebbal seat and had threatened to quit the party.
The decision to give a ticket to S S Mallikarjun, son of KPCC treasurer Shamanur Shivashankarappa resulted in Syed Saifulla filing nominations from JD(S).