Karnataka Election 2023: Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar in Congress first list of 124 candidates
Congress fields former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah from Varuna assembly seat, PCC chief Shivakumar from Kanakapura
FollowCongress party has announced the first list of 124 candidates for Karnataka assembly elections, which are scheduled for May 2023. The first list of candidates includes the names of former chief minister Siddaramaiah and State party president DK Shivakumar. While Siddaramaiah has been fielded from the Varuna assembly seat, Shivakumar will contest from Kanakapura.
The party has fielded former deputy chief minister G Parameshwara from the Koratagere (SC) constituency. Former ministers KH Muniappa and Priyank Kharge will contest from Devanahalli and Chitapur (SC), respectively. Priyank is the son of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
The party's central election committee cleared the first list of candidates after a meeting in Delhi on March 17. The committee is chaired by Congress chief Kharge. Rahul Gandhi was also present at the meeting.
Varuna in Mysuru district is currently represented by his son Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah. Yathindra's name does not figure for any other segment in the first list of 124 candidates.
Siddaramaiah, who currently represents Badami in Bagalkote district, had earlier announced that he will be contesting from Kolar, but backtracked after party leadership reportedly cautioned him regarding the "risks" fighting from there.
On Friday while confirming his candidacy from Varuna, the former CM had indicated about contesting from two seats, and the second seat has not been announced in the first list.
Candidates have not been announced for the two seats which Siddarmaiah seems to have set his eye on- Kolar and Badami. Names are yet to be finalised for exactly 100 more seats. Karnataka has a total of 224 Assembly constituencies. The Congress has set a target of winning at least 150 seats in the 224-member Assembly. The Election Commission of India is expected to announce the poll schedule in the next few days.
The first list mostly contains the seats represented by sitting MLAs and the constituencies for which only one name was recommended by the state unit. Interestingly, veteran Congress leader K H Muniyappa, the seven-time MP and former Union Minister, has returned to state politics, and has been fielded by the party from Devanahalli, while his daughter and sitting MLA from KGF Roopakala M has once again got the ticket from the segment.
The 91-year old veteran leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa has once again got the ticket from Davanagere South, and so does his son, S S Mallikarjun from Davanagere North.
Among senior party leaders who have got the tickets include G Parameshwara-Koratagere. R V Deshpande- Haliyal, H K Patil-Gadag, M B Batil (campaign committee chief) - Babaleswar, Priyank Kharge (AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge's son)- Chitapur, K R Rameshkumar (former Speaker) -Srinivaspur, Eshwar Khandre (Working President)- Bhalki, Satish Laxmanrao Jarkiholi (Working President)- Yemkanmardi, K J George- Sarvagnanagar, Dinesh Gundu Rao-Gandhi Nagar.
Darshan Darshan Dhruvanarayana, son of Party working President Dhruvanaryana, who passed away recently, has got the ticket from Nanjangud, and senior leader H C Mahadevappa, who was a ticket aspirant for this seat, has been fielded from T Narasipur.
Iqbal Hussain H A has been fielded from Ramanagra to fight JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy's son, actor-turned politician Nikhil Kumaraswamy. Shivakumar had indicated about fielding his brother and Congress' Bangalore Rural MP D K Suresh from the seat citing a message from the party leadership. However, Suresh had ruled out the possibility citing him being the lone Congress MP from the state and that he was not interested in state politics.
Puttanna and U B Bankar, who recently crossed over to the BJP, have been fielded from Rajajinagar and Hirekerur respectively. Fight between two siblings, the sons of former Chief Minister late S Bangarappa, is expected once again in Sorab, with Congress fielding Madhu Bangarappa from the seat, while BJP is likely to field sitting MLA Kumar Bangarappa from the segment, which is the family bastion.
Other father-son or daughter duo who have made it to the list are former Minister M. Krishnappa and son Priyakrishna from Vijaynagar and Govindraj Nagar segments respectively, and former Minister Ramalinga Reddy (Working President) and his daughter Sowmya R from BTM Layout and Jayanagar respectively.
Also former Minister Ramanatha Rai B from Bantval and his son Mithun M. Rai from Moodabidri. There are eight Muslim candidates in the first list they are- U.T. Abdul Khader Ali Fareed (Mangalore), Tanveer Sait (Narasimharaja), N.A. Haris (Shanti Nagar), Rizwan Arshad (Shivajinagar), Rahim Khan (Bidar), Iqbal Hussain H A (Ramanagaram), B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan (Chamrajpet), and Kaneez Fatima (Gulbarga Uttar).
Six women have made it to the first list- Kaneez Fatima, Laxmi Ravindra Hebbalkar (Belgaum Rural), Dr. Anjali Nimbalkar (Khanapur), Roopakala M (KGF), Kusuma H (Rajarajeshwarinagar), Sowmya R (Jayanagar). Interestingly in the first list, the Congress has not finalised any candidate from Channapatna from where former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy is contesting, and Shiggaavi, from where Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is likely to be fielded by BJP.
The Congress is the first party to release its candidates' list for the elections in Karnataka. The Election Commission is yet to announce the schedule for assembly polls in the southern state. Assembly polls in Karnataka are slated before May, when the tenure of the current assembly ends. The Congress is seeking to wrest power from the BJP in the southern state.
