BENGALURU: The Congress on Thursday released its second list of 42 candidates, which includes expected names like HY Meti, Baburao Chinchansur, Santosh Lad, Kimmane Rathnakar and others. Having finalised names for 166 seats, the party has kept 58 constituencies on hold, leading to talk that it lacks sure-shot winners here.
The Congress Election Committee (CEC) meeting, chaired by All-India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge, held deliberations in the national capital on Tuesday and Wednesday to choose the candidates.
The 58 constituencies include those where the party has failed to open its account in the past three or four elections, and are dominated by the BJP and Janata Dal (Secular), like Shikaripura, Uttarahalli, Ramanagara and others along the coast. The Congress stands a very slim chance in these seats, and has neither strong candidates nor a good party network at the booth level.
Congress leaders, though, deny this, and claim that it has more than one candidate, so the party is likely to take more time to finalise its third list. KPCC working president Saleem Ahmed said, “This is not the case. We have more than one candidate here and competition is tough, therefore, we are taking more time.”
Dr Gourav Vallabh from AICC said, “We have candidates in all 224 constituencies. We got 1,350 applications which makes it an average of six candidates per constituency.”
“The Congress has released 166 names, which the BJP is not able to do. Congress is probably the only party that has represented every constituency and has members in every village,’’ Opposition leader in the Legislative Council BK Hariprasad said.
No second seat for Siddu?
The issue of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah contesting from a second seat — Kolar — did not come up for discussion at the election committee meeting, according to sources. It means the party is unlikely to give him a second seat as the policy is ‘One leader, One ticket’, as KPCC president D K Shivakumar had clarified in the recent past.
In fact, when Siddaramaiah was vying for Kolar, party leader Rahul Gandhi had suggested that he stick to Varuna, and his name is on the first list of 124 candidates.
Congress leader Kothur G Manjunath, who is facing a case with regard to an alleged fake SC caste certificate in the high court, is expected to be the Mulbagal (SC) candidate if the verdict goes in his favour. If it goes against him, he may move to Kolar, which is why candidates have not yet been declared for Kolar and Mulbagal.