BENGALURU: With the screening committee meeting of AICC scheduled to take place on March 11, ticket aspirants from Karnataka are making last-ditch attempts to sail through to the final shortlist. Aspirants from Bagalkot made a beeline to legislative party leader and screening committee member Siddaramaiah’s residence on Friday.
Leaders from the district also visited candidates of their choice. With almost a dozen aspirants, Bagalkot has the highest Congress leaders in the race for a ticket. A tough fight between Veena Kashappanavar and Bayakka Meti – both kin of former Congress legislators – forced another round of consultation for the Bagalkot seat after Thursday’s election committee meeting.
After consulting with local leaders, Siddaramaiah is said to have shortlisted four names for KPCC’s final candidate list: Veena Kashappanavar, Mahantesh Udapudi, Nanaiah Matha and Rakshita Eti. Three of these names will be sent to AICC screening committee. Siddaramaiah also reached out to dissenting Congress MLA from Chikkaballapur Dr Sudhakar Reddy. Irked over not being appointed the Chairman of Pollution Control Board, the Congress leader had accused Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy of sabotage.