Retired IPS officer Kempaiah is likely to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Congress ticket.
Kempaiah had successfully tracked Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam member Sivarasan and his associates, who were responsible for former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.
According to KPCC sources, Kempaiah's name is doing rounds in the party circle for the upcoming elections.Kempaiah has shown his inclination to contest the Lok Sabha elections on Congress ticket and preferred to contest from Koppal constituency, KPCC sources said.
However, Kempaiah neither denied nor confirmed the rumours. "At present, there is no such proposal before me. However, if the opportunity comes I may take a call," he told Express. When questioned whether he is interested to take the plunge into the electoral arena, Kempaiah refused to comment."To take a decision on joining politics opportunities should knock the door," said Kempaiah, who is said to be one of the closest aides of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
"While Kempaiah's name is in the air among the aspirants wanting to contest the Lok Sabha elections, his name was not there in the list of probable candidates prepared by the KPCC observers," one of the senior party functionaries said on condition anonymity. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had fielded retired IPS officer H T Sangliana from Bangalore Central. He lost to BJP's P C Mohan.
Sangliana, has also reportedly expressed his desire to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Apart from Sangliana, the retired IPS officers whose names are in the rounds for the Lok Sabha elections in various parties include Shankar Bidari, K C Ramamurthy, Shubhash Bharani and Mothi Ram among others.