| Around 100 aspirants shortlisted, 15 senior leaders vying for five seats |
Who will it be? C.K. Jaffer Sharief
H.T. Sangliana
The crux of the problem is that there are nearly 100 aspirants who have been shortlisted, with around 15 top leaders vying for five seats. It has been hard for the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president R.V. Deshpande and AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Ghulam Nabi Azad to hammer out a solution as leaders seeking the party ticket are senior Congressmen, of which four are former Chief Ministers.
There are indications that the announcement of the list of Congress candidates will be synchronised with the launch of the party’s campaign here by the president of the AICC, Sonia Gandhi, in Davangere on March 23.
The sources in the party told The Hindu that senior leaders of the party from the State are already up in arms over the selection process and the matter has been pending before the AICC president for the past two days.
Of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the State, the Congress party is in a fix over finalising candidates for Bangalore Central, Bangalore North, Chickaballapur, Bangalore South, Mangalore and Bidar constituencies.
The former Railway Minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief, is seeking ticket for Bangalore Central, while the party high command reportedly promised ticket to H.T. Sangliana when he voted against the non-confidence motion moved against the UPA government after the Centre entered into a nuclear deal with United States.
The party is in a quandary over the Chickaballapur seat, with the local unit favouring M.R. Seetharam who enjoys a considerable following there.
However, it has been learnt that AICC spokesperson and former Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily has sought to contest from there.
In Bidar, former Chief Minister Dharam Singh wants ticket while the party has to accommodate Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi, who was elected from Gulbarga in May 2004.
The Congress Central Election Committee of the party met in New Delhi two days ago to finalise the Karnataka list. The meeting reportedly ended without taking a final call on the list and put off the decision by a few days.
