Too many Council aspirants new headache for Cong

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Congress has found itself in a new conundrum as more than 300 hopefuls have emerged for 12 Council seats that will fall vacant on June 17. Of these 12 seats, 11 are elected by MLAs.

Congress with its tally of 134 MLAs can nominate seven MLCs. BJP might be able to elect three, leaving one to allies JD(S). The last date for the submission of these Council nominations is June 13.

Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar on Tuesday confirmed that there were indeed more than 300 MLC aspirants from every region, adding that not everyone can be accommodated and that the high command will take a call.

Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah flew out to New Delhi to discuss the same on Tuesday. Congress can re-nominate political secretary to the CM K Govindaraju, Minister for Science and Technology N Boseraju, Aravind Kumar Arali and Harish Kumar, all of whose terms expire on June 17.

8 pen letter to CM

Moreover, eight Congressmen had recently written to Siddaramaiah demanding that they be given consideration since they had “worked for the party”.

The letter was signed by Shivakumar aide Vijay Mulgund, V Shankar, B R Naidu, S Manohar, Abdul Wajid, A Kenchegowda, V S Aradhya and M Ramachandrappa.” “Every time MLC polls are conducted, it is said that those loyal to the party must be chosen.

However, for various reasons, only those handpicked by senior leaders and the high command make the cut. You will have a clear indication of who has worked and how much in the party’s organisation. It is your duty to see that such deserving people are elected,” the letter told Siddaramaiah.

Hopefuls from the Grand Old Party also the CM’s son Dr Yathindra. Others are former BJP MP from Koppal Karadi Sanganna, Vinay Mulgund, state Youth Congress president BV Srinivas, former CM Devaraj Urs’ grandson Suraj Hegde, state Women’s Congress chief Pushpa Amarnath, KP Nanjundi and former Council Chairman BL Shankar.

Ex-Chairman may return to House

Shankar was instrumental in getting HD Thammaiah to jump ship from the BJP to the Congress back last year. Thammaiah had then defeated his former mentor CT Ravi from the Chikkamagaluru Assembly seat in May 2023.

Shankar may get rewarded with a Council seat for sacrificing his chance to land the Chikkamagaluru ticket.

Moreover, Shivakumar had assured those who missed on an Assembly ticket but worked for the party would be rewarded with MLC nominations.

Other Council aspirants from the Congress include SB Basavaraj, Agha Sultan, Rani Satish, Ivan D’Souza, Vijay Kumar, MC Venugopal, Prasanna Kumar, Sampath Ray and Vinay Karthik. Moreover, Congress’ Muslim leaders and Lambani representatives are pushing for MLC nominations.

Muslim party men have been demanding that an MLC be elected from among their co-religionists since last year.

Meanwhile, Minister for Public Works Satish Jarkiholi has argued that Lambani leaders be accommodated in the Council since they had lost from their Assembly segments last year. Jarkiholi had also warned against Bengalurucentric MLC picks.