With 166 candidates announced, Karnataka Congress faces the heat from rebels in a few seats

After holding a meeting with his supporters, Datta announced on Sunday that he would stand as an independent candidate. Though Congress insiders do not consider it as a setback, the development points to the differences within the party given that Datta was brought over by former chief minister Siddaramaiah.

The Congress has collected a deposit of Rs 2 lakh and Rs 5,000 as the application fee from ticket aspirants.

The Chitradurga constituency witnessed a triangular fight between former MLC Raghu Achar, K C Veerendra and S K Basavarajan for a Congress ticket. With Veerendra, son-in-law of film actor Doddanna, managing to get the ticket, Achar has knocked the doors of the JD(S) and expressed his displeasure with the high command. “Siddaramaiah was the one who asked me to contest the Assembly poll from Chitradurga and insisted that I not contest the MLC poll. But now, they have backstabbed me by denying the ticket,” he said.

Basavarajan has announced that he will be a rebel candidate. In Kittur, D B Inamdar, who sought a ticket for his son or daughter-in-law, may work against Babasaheb Patil, Laxmi Hebbalkar’s aide.

In Kalaghatagi, where the Congress ticket went to former minister Santosh Lad, former MLC Nagaraj Chabbi has joined the BJP. But it is unclear if the saffron party has assured him of a ticket.

The Congress has announced former minister Iqbal Ansari for Gangavathi, a decision that has not gone down well with senior leader H R Srinath. “I was promised a ticket by D K Shivakumar; I do not know what went wrong,” he said.

As Srinath announced that he had quit the Congress, BJP MLAs Paranna Munavalli and Basavaraj Dadesugur held meetings with him, so did Kalyana Rajya Pragati Party founder Gali Janardhana Raddy, a former BJP minister. Though Srinath is yet to disclose his next step, he has confirmed that he will not campaign for the Congress candidate.

In Yadgir, the Congress chose Chinnareddy Patil over former minister A B Malaka Reddy, who was expecting a ticket for himself or his daughter Anuraga. Reddy has said he will decide on the next step after speaking to his supporters.

Vishwas Vasanth Vaidya, who managed to get the Congress ticket from Savadatti, will have to face a revolt from Sourabh Chopra, who had eyed the seat. In Gokak, Ashok Kadadi will have to face the wrath of Ashok Pujary, another aspirant who has lost out. And the Congress selected B Shivaram over Rajashekar in Belur.

Congress state general secretary B S Shivanna said that it was quite natural some people were unhappy about the ticket distribution. “Many of them come back to work for the party and some people choose other ways such as joining other parties. Before selecting the candidates, the Congress carried out surveys in all the Assembly constituencies and winning was the sole criterion. The names went through a proper process before the announcement was made.” he added.

“It is natural that aspirants get disappointed when they don’t get the ticket. No party is an exception in this matter. You will see the same trend when the BJP announces its tickets. At the party level, we will try to pacify as much as we can to face the polls as a unit,” he said.

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