Kharge flooded with ticket aspirants’ demands

NT Correspondent

New Delhi / Bengaluru / Mandya: Even as the Congress prepares to release its first list by Ugadi (which falls on Wednesday), All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge has been receiving delegations and letters from ticket hopefuls each putting forth its own demands.

The first delegation was led by Congress’ Mandya leaders, including former minister MS Atmanand and Amravathi Chandrashekhar who called on the party’s national president in New Delhi with eight other aspirants demanding that loyalists such as themselves be considered over turncoats for tickets in the district, which constitutes the Vokkaliga heartland. As many as 16 hopefuls have applied for the Mandya Assembly constituency, where JD(S)’ M Srinivas is the incumbent.

It had been rumoured that Sports and Youth Affairs Minister KC Narayana Gowda, who went over to the BJP in Operation Kamala in July 2021, is dissatisfied with his position in the saffron party and would join the Congress. Gowda is the sitting MLA from KR Pet in Mandya district. Upset Congress workers in KR Pet segment had staged a protest against him reportedly joining the party.

Congress’ Mandya district president CD Gangadhar’s car was even pelted with eggs over the issue. The other delegation was led by All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha chairman and Congress MLA from Davangere South MLA Shamanur Shivanshankarappa, who had demanded anywhere between 52 to 60 tickets for the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community.

Earlier, he had made similar demands at a meeting chaired by party screening committee chairman Mohan Prakash. The Veerashaiva Mahasabha Bengaluru Urban district president has also written to Kharge demanding more seats for the community, especially in the 28 Assembly constituencies in the city. Rajajinagar seat for instance has over 40,000 voters from the community.

However, party is considering fielding a Brahmin candidate from the segment since the community is also quite populous in Rajajinagar. MLC Putanna who had recently left BJP for Congress is said to be the favourite to land the ticket for Rajajinagar, which has many aspirants.