Ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in Karnataka, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday said that the party will conduct an extensive discussion on candidates for the remaining 100 seats in the State. The Congress had on March 25 announced its first list of 124 candidates for the polls, which included names of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and State party president DK Shivakumar.
“There is a meeting of our selection committee, the remaining 100 seats will be discussed. People on the committee will give their opinion, and after that, a decision will be taken,” said Kharge. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar, Senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala, Congress Bangalore Rural MP DK Suresh, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal and veteran leader Mohsina Kidwai were seen arriving at the All India Congress Committee office for a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee.
Elections are slated to be held in Karnataka in a single phase on May 10, and counting of votes will take place on May 13. Siddaramaiah will be contesting from the Varuna constituency while DK Shivakumar would be the candidate from Kanakapura.
Siddaramaiah had expressed his interest to contest from the Kolar constituency but the Congress High Command instructed him to drop the plan following disagreements between the party’s local leaders in the constituency. The party has fielded M Roopakala from the Kolar Gold Field constituency. On Monday a large number of Congress workers staged protests in front of the party office in Bengaluru seeking tickets for their leaders to contest in the polls.
Yesterday, Kudligi BJP MLA NY Gopalakrishna, who resigned as a legislator, joined the Congress in the presence of. Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah. Karnataka, which has 224 seats in the Assembly currently has 119 MLAs of the ruling BJP, while Congress has 75 and its ally JD(S) has 28 seats.
Political parties in the State including the ruling BJP, Congress and ally JD(S) are engaged in a spate of allegations and counter-allegations, with the latter attempting to corner the government over the issue of corruption. The model code of conduct had come into effect after elections were announced in the State.
