Congress names 5 Council candidates

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Congress released a list of five candidates for the Karnataka Legislative Council elections slated to be held next year.

In a statement on Sunday, All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal said the AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge approved the names of the candidates.

The candidates for two graduates' constituencies are B Chandrashekara B from North East seat and Ramoji Gowda from Bengaluru segment. Puttanna, who had contested from the Rajaji Nagar Assembly seat back in May and lost, has bagged the Congress candidacy for the Bengaluru Teachers constituency.

KK Manjunath will contest from the South West Teachers seat and DT Srinivas will contest from the South East Teachers constituency.

No Mansoor in this list either

A key aspirant who is missing from the list is the son of former Union minister and senior Congress leader K Rahman Khan, Mansoor Ali Khan.

He had been assured of a Council nomination by the Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar back in July. However, he was denied the same in August in favour of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s confidante and former Women and Child Development Minister Umashree.

The other August nominees from the party had been former Minister MR Seetharam and ex-Enforcement Directorate officer HP Sudham Das. All three nominations had been unpopular.

Party workers had complained that youth had been largely ignored in allocating tickets for the Assembly polls and had been shunned once again visa vis Council nominations.

Decision may irk Muslim partymen

Muslim Congressman had demanded that a co-religionist be nominated to the Council back in August and are likely to be displeased that their demand will not be accommodated in 2024 either.

They had insisted that it wasn’t about Mansoor Khan but about the larger question of representation for the minority community. Muslims had been robust in their support for Congress in the May 10 Assembly elections and the expectations had been great.

Usually, Muslims get three Cabinet berths but this time they got two with Zameer Ahmed Khan bagging the Housing and Minority Affairs portfolios while Rahim Khan landed the Municipal Administration and Waqf ministries.

As a compromise, MLC Naseer Ahmed had been made a Political Secretary to the CM. Moreover, UT Khader was made the Speaker of the Assembly. A delegation of Zameer, MLA Rizwan Arshad and others even met Siddaramaiah regarding the same.