BENGALURU: The Congress on Tuesday announced its candidates — Ashok Managuli for Sindagi and Srinivas Mane for the Hanagal bypolls — soon after party acting president Sonia Gandhi met Karnataka CLP leader Siddaramaiah in Delhi. State party president D K Shivakumar had presented his choices when he was in Delhi a few days ago.
Congress sources said while Ashok Managuli, son of former JDS MLA M C Managuli, was a serious claimant for the ticket from Sindagi, there were two aspirants for the Hanagal seat — MLC Srinivas Mane, who contested from the seat in 2018 and lost to C M Udasi, and Manohar Tahsildar who has served as MLA for four terms. While Srinivas Mane staked claim on the ground that he lost in 2018 by about 6,000 votes, Manohar Talsildar had claimed the ticket as he had represented the constituency for four terms. However, both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar backed the candidature of Srinivas Mane whose term as MLC expires on January 5.
Siddaramaiah, who spoke to the media after emerging out of the meeting with Sonia Gandhi, said they discussed the upcoming bypolls and other party matters. “I was called for a meeting. I met Sonia Gandhi and we discussed the by-elections and organisational issues,” he said.
Asked if the party was considering a larger role for him at the national level, Siddaramaiah emphatically denied it. “Except for Karnataka politics, no national politics was discussed,” he said and asserted that his interest lies in state politics. He added that he had been offered the post of AICC General Secretary by former party chief Rahul Gandhi which he had declined and recalled that he resigned as member of the Congress Working Committee and clarified that he has no interest in national politics.
Siddaramaiah also said there was no discussion with the party president on any reshuffle in the party’s state unit. “It was not discussed with Sonia Gandhi. I have given a list to Randeep Singh Surjewala. He has said that he will discuss the issue of revamping the state party unit with me,” he added. Party sources confirmed that the Congress is going for a major revamp and the names are likely to be finalised before Ayudha Puja. When asked about it, Siddaramaiah said, “We won’t discuss it in public.”
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Siddaramaiah said that the killing of four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh reminded him of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the incident. He demanded that Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra be dismissed and his son arrested.