Journalism of Courage
Gearing up for the upcoming high-stakes Assembly elections in Karnataka, the state Congress has been besieged with ticket aspirants, with its decision to seek application from them creating a “problem of plenty” and attendant complications for the faction-ridden party unit.
An indication to this effect came from a function held in Bengaluru Sunday, which was attended by several Congress leaders and prospective party candidates including Geetha Shivaram and Nagalakshmi Choudhary, who are both ticket aspirants from the Dasarahalli constituency being represented by JD (S) MLA R Manjunath.
Addressing this event, Nagalakshmi spoke of her aspiration to contest from Dasarahalli as a Congress candidate in the state Assembly election slated for May 2023. When Geetha’s turn came, she told the gathering that she too was a ticket aspirant from the same constituency. However, senior Congress leader and ex-chief minister Siddaramaiah, who was present on the stage, cut her speech short.
Both Nagalakshmi and Geetha are affiliated to the Siddaramaiah faction in the state Congress. Party sources say that Siddaramaiah, a known rival of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC)’s president D K Shivakumar, chose to cut Geetha’s speech midway to avoid any row until a final decision on tickets is taken by the party leadership.
Last month, Shivakumar announced the KPCC’s decision to fix a fee of Rs 5,000 each from the party ticket aspirants for application forms along with a DD of Rs two lakh while filing them.
This opened the floodgates of applications from aspiring Congress candidates for contesting the elections to the 224-member state Assembly, with over 1,300 applications submitted to the KPCC by the end of November.
In many seats the applications have been filed by a slew of leaders affiliated to various Congress groups, mainly the Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah factions, with their differences surfacing in various places owing to their conflicting aspirations.
Congress sources said the constituencies like Vijayapura Urban and Shivamogga have seen more than 20 applications each for contesting the polls. Several other constituencies such as Devanahalli (Bengaluru Rural district), Aurad (Bidar district) and Mandya have more than 10 aspiring candidates each for the party tickets.
One of the main objectives for seeking such applications, according to Shivakumar, was to generate funds for the cash-strapped Congress and to gauge the number of its ticket aspirants. The party also offered a 50 per cent discount from the SC/ST candidates. Though the initiative evoked a massive response from the party leaders and ticket aspirants, it also came under criticism from a Congress section that felt this new process would undermine the party’s electoral prospects.
All the ticket applications have been scrutinised and compiled constituency-wise by the KPCC leaders. The list will be taken into account when the Congress leadership finalises the candidates for all the constituencies just ahead of the polls, party sources said, adding that “winnability” would be a key criterion in this regard.
