As Congress unveiled their list of candidates for the Karnataka Assembly elections on Sunday, some party workers didn’t take it well.
Workers of the Congress party took to the streets in parts of the state to protest the ‘unfair distribution of tickets’ for the 12 May assembly elections scheduled. The party workers allege nepotism because Congress has retained 103 of its 122 candidates instead of initiating fresh new faces.
The workers took to the streets in Mangaluru, while in Mandya, protesters vandalised party offices while chanting anti-Siddaramaiah slogans, and burning tyres and effigies on the roads, ANI reported.
The protests have spread all over the state and the workers are going so far as to burn tyres on the highway and shout slogans.
Congress, however, said that this reaction was not totally out of the blue.
“These will settle down. These things do happen. Within the next few days, you will see the issues settling down. Congress is a huge family and we can always accommodate them (those who have not been named in the current list) in other positions. The party will look after you, take care of you,” Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president D Gundu Rao told CNN-News18.
Congress Accused of Nepotism
Congress has also been accused of nepotism while releasing the list of Candidates with Siddaramaiah's son Yathindra contesting from the Varuna constituency, a seat traditionally held by the chief minister.
Congress has a legacy of family members getting tickets; never a new face is promoted, so the same continues in Karnataka. We also sometimes give tickets to family members of leaders, but those are exceptions.DV Sadananda Gowda, former Chief Minister
The party has not applied the “one-family, one-ticket” formula for the Karnataka polls as it granted tickets to the chief minister and his son, the Home Minister and his daughter, and the Law Minister and his son.
The Congress had followed this rule in the Punjab polls held in 2017.
Congress Announces First List of Candidates
The Congress on Sunday, 15 April, released its first list of 218 candidates for the 12 May Karnataka Assembly elections, fielding Chief Minister Siddaramaiah from Chamundeshwari and state party chief G Parameshwara from Korategere.
The announcement that Siddaramaiah will contest from Chamundeshwari in Mysuru, ended speculation that he might be in the fray from a second constituency, Badami, in north Karnataka's Bagalkote district.
In the dissolved Assembly, Siddaramaiah was representing Varuna in Mysuru. It has now been allotted to his son Yatindra.
Siddaramaiah had made his debut in the Assembly in 1983 from Chamundeshwari on a Lok Dal ticket. He has won five times and tasted defeat twice from there.
Sources said that while the party has dropped 12 sitting MLAs, all the ministers were given a ticket.
The first list includes at least 15 women candidates, and the names of the seven former JD-S and two ex-BJP legislators who joined the party earlier in 2018.
Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy will contest the polls from BTM Layout and his daughter Soumya R from the Jayanagara Assembly constituency (Bengaluru).
Law minister TB Jayachandra's son Santosh Jayachandra was given a ticket from the Chikanayakanhalli Assembly seat (Tumkur).
Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Priyank Kharge was given a ticket and he will contest the polls from the Chitapur (Reserved) seat in Gulbarga district.
Out of the total candidates, 52 are OBCs, 48 and 39 from the Lingayat and the Vokalliga communities respectively, 36 from the Schedule Castes (SC) and 17 from Schedule Tribes (STs), party sources said.
Fifteen candidates are Muslim, seven Brahmin and two candidates each from the Jain and Christian communities, they said.
Youths were given preference, with 24 candidates in the age group of 25-40 years, 49 in the 41-50 years age group, 72 in the 51-60 years age group, 66 in the 61-70 years age group, and seven candidates above the age of 70 years, the sources said.
The party said it has left the Melukota Assembly seat (AC-188) for one of its partners.
Former BJP MLAs Nagendra and Anand Singh and former JD-S MLAs Zamir Ahmed Khan, Chelluvar Ayyasamy, Iqbal Ansari, Akhanda Srinivas Moorthi, Blakrishna, Bheema Nayak and Ramesh Bendi Siddhagowda were given tickets. They joined the Congress recently.
The party is yet to announce its candidates for the Sindagi, Kittur, Nagathana, Melukote, Raichur and Shantinagar assembly seats.
Among the fresh faces fielded by the Congress are Samath Raj, Anjali Nimbalkar, G Padmavati, Roopa Shashidhar, HS Manjunath, K Fatima, Madhu Madhe Gouda, MD Laxminarayan Vani, Krishna Reddy, Keertana Rudresh Gowda, B Suresh Siddhaiah, B Manjugowda and AL Pushpa.
The results of the election to the 224-seat Karnataka Assembly will be out on 15 May.
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