Siddaramaiah from son’s seat Varuna as Cong declares first Karnataka list

PR1 Karnataka vs Candidates 2023 by Dorjee Wangmo on Scribd

The Congress first list covering 124 of the 224 total seats does not include Badami, the seat from which Siddaramaiah won narrowly in 2018, as well as Kolar, the constituency which the former CM had expressed his wish to contest from.

Former Congress MP and Dalit leader K H Muniyappa has been named from Devanahalli (SC) seat, and Darshan Dhruvanarayan, the son of former Congress working president R Dhruvanarayan (who died days earlier) from Nanjangud (SC).

The party has fielded six Muslim MLAs (all of them sitting legislators), six women (five of them refielded), while six of the candidates are fathers and sons or daughters.

The oldest candidate in the Congress list is 89-year-old Shamanur Shivashankarappa, the sitting MLA from Davangere South, while the youngest is Darshan Dhruvanarayan (31).

The women contestants in the first list are Lakshmi Hebbalkar (Belagavi Rural), Anjali Nimbalkar (Khanapur), Kaneez Fathima (Gulbarga North), Roopakala Shashidhar (Kolar Gold Field, SC reserved), H Kusuma (Raja Rajeshwari Nagar) and Sowmya Reddy (Jayanagar). Kusuma, who lost a 2019 bypoll, is the wife of former IAS officer D K Ravi, whose death due to suicide had led to allegations against the then Congress government.

The Muslim candidates fielded by the Congress are Fathima, the wife of late Congress leader Qamar-ul-Islam, U T Khader (Mangalore), Zameer Ahmed (Chamrajpet), Raheem Khan (Bidar), Rizwan Arshad (Shivajinagar), and N A Haris (Shanthinagar).

While both M Krishnappa and his son Priya Krishna are contesting, from seats that fall in Bengaluru, K H Muniyappa has got a ticket from Devanahalli and daughter Roopakala from KGF. Shamanur Shivashankarappa and his son S S Mallikarjun are both fielded from seats in Davangere.

Former Congress CM S Bangarappa’s son Madhu Bangarappa (who switched from the JD-S) has been fielded from the family pocket borough of Sorab. Madhu is likely to take on his brother Kumar Bangarappa, contesting from the BJP ticket, in Sorab.

BJP leader B N Bache Gowda’s son Sharath Bache Gowda, who won as an Independent last time, has got the Congress ticket from Hoskote in south Karnataka.

Among the sitting Congress MLAs not included in the first list is M Y Patil (Afzalpur), whose gunman was named in the police sub-inspector recruitment scam; Durgappa Hoolagere from Lingasugur; Kusuma Shivalli from Kundgol; Ramappa from Harihara; Venkataramanappa from Pavagada (replaced by his son); Yathindra (who has given way to father Siddaramaiah); V Muniyappa from Sidlaghatta; and Akhanda Srinivasamurthy from Pulakeshinagar.

The Congress has fielded four of its six working presidents in the first list. While one of them, Saleem Ahmed, is looking to contest from the Haveri region, Dhruvanarayan who died earlier this month has been replaced by his son.

KPCC chief Shivakumar said the Congress would release the second list in two to three days.

Siddaramaiah said recently, after a meeting in Delhi, that names have been cleared for those seats where there is not more than one aspirant. “In places where there is no conflict, irrespective of whether there is a sitting Congress MLA or not, the names have been cleared,” he said.

State Congress working president Satish Jarkiholi suggested at the time that there were differences of opinion on the fielding of around six sitting Congress MLAs. “There is an issue with six sitting candidates and the discussions are still on. The matter has been postponed. A decision will be taken on the basis of surveys and more opinions,” Jarkiholi said.

The Congress becomes the second party to release names for the coming polls. Earlier, the JD(S) had released a list of 93 names.

The poll schedule has not been announced as yet by the Election Commission. It is now expected in the first week of April, with the polls likely in early May. The term of the 15th Karnataka Legislative Assembly ends on May 24, 2023.

PTI adds…

Meanwhile, as the party fielded him from his home turf of Varuna in Mysuru district, Siddaramaiah Saturday said he wants to contest from two seats in the upcoming Assembly polls. He said he wants to contest from Kolar too along with Varuna, if the party agrees.

The Congress has not yet announced any candidate for the Kolar seat, and also Badami, which Siddaramaiah currently represents.