Bengaluru: The Congress party Sunday finally announced its candidates for the by-elections to two Assembly segments in Karnataka, despite an ongoing intense internal conflict.
In an official statement, party General Secretary and MP K.C. Venugopal announced the names of Umesh Meti and Samarth Mallikarjun for the Bagalkot and Davanagere South constituencies, respectively.
Both seats were previously held by the Congress.
The Bagalkot seat was represented by senior leader and former Minister H.Y. Meti, a staunch follower of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Davanagere South was held by veteran Congress leader, the late Shamanur Shivashankarappa.
The party has fielded the son of late H.Y. Meti in Bagalkot and the grandson of Shamanur Shivashankarappa in Davanagere South. Due to stiff competition among aspirants in both constituencies, the party leadership took time to finalise and announce the candidates.
The official statement said, “The Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge approved the proposal for candidatures.”
For the Bagalkot seat, the daughters and son of H.Y. Meti were among the aspirants, along with several other prominent leaders. In Davanagere South, Muslim leaders in the state had strongly urged the high command to field a candidate from the minority community, citing the presence of more than 85,000 voters from the community.
In both seats, the party chose to field family members of the leader who had previously represented the seats. Senior leaders, including Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala, visited Bengaluru and held a lengthy meeting with party leaders to resolve differences.
Sources stated that finalising the Davanagere South candidate was particularly challenging, as Minister for Housing and Waqf Zameer Ahmad Khan had reportedly threatened to resign if the ticket was not given to a candidate from the minority community.
However, sources added that Randeep Singh Surjewala warned Zameer Ahmad Khan against pressuring the party leadership and went ahead with the decision to field Samarth Mallikarjun. Surjewala also expressed displeasure over Samarth Mallikarjun submitting his nomination before the official announcement, reportedly as a pressure tactic.
Sources further stated that, considering the late Shamanur Shivashankarappa’s role as President of the Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha and his contribution to building the party in central Karnataka, the party decided to field his grandson.
It remains to be seen how the party will assuage local minority leaders, who have openly stated that if a candidate from their community is not fielded, they would work to ensure the Congress party’s defeat.
The BJP had announced its candidates earlier, and they have already filed their nominations for both seats.
Expelled BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal alleged that former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and his son, state party president B.Y. Vijayendra, have an internal understanding with the late Shamanur Shivashankarappa’s family and deliberately fielded a weak candidate to aid Samarth Mallikarjun’s victory. Vijayendra denied the allegation, dismissing it as baseless and stating that the party has chosen its candidates carefully.
Polling for the two seats will be held April 9.
