The Karnataka Congress on Sunday released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. With no surprises in store, the party has offered tickets to sitting MPs. The party has offered the Dakshina Kannada ticket to Mithun Rai, Youth Congress President of Dakshina Kannada, overlooking senior leaders like Ramanath Rai and Vinay Kumar Sorake. Party insiders say that Mithun Rai's nomination comes in the backdrop of the demand for a candidate from the Bunt community. "Leaders from the Christian community is not happy with this. They wanted some sort of representation and the party did not choose any candidate from the community. Besides, instead of fielding a candidate from the Muslim community in Bengaluru Central, they should have chosen one for Bidar," the source said.
The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Working President Eshwar Khandre has been given the ticket to contest from Bidar, a BJP bastion since 1998. Former Minister and former MP of Mysuru CH Vijayshankar has been given the ticket this time around and will be up against BJP's incumbent MP Pratap Simha. Senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge has been renominated from Kalaburgi. Veena Kashappanavar is the only woman candidate in Congress’s first list. The party has nominated Lingayat leader Shamnur Shivashankarappa as its candidate from Davangere. Shivashankarappa had earlier expressed skepticims over contesting polls owing to old age. The party was mulling over fieliding Shamnur's son SS Mallikarjun.
The party has not announced its candidate for Bengaluru South and Dharwad yet. Congress sources say that the party is waiting for the BJP to announce its candidate from Bengaluru South before making a decision. The BJP had initially announced Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, wife of late BJP Union Minister and five-time MP Ananth Kumar, as its candidate from the constituency. However, her name did not appear in the BJP's first list, which was announced on Friday night.
Here is a first list of candidates:
Chikkodi - Prakash Hukkeri
Belagavi - Virupakshi Sadhunnavar
Bagalkot - Veena Kashappanavar
Kalaburgi - Mallikarjun Kharge
Davangere - Shamnur Shivashankarappa
Raichur - BV Naik
Bidar - Eshwar Khandre
Ballari - VS Ugrappa
Haveri - DR Patil
Dakshina Kannada - Mithun Rai
Chitradurga - BN Chandrappa
Mysuru-Kodagu - CH Vijayshankar
Bengaluru Rural - DK Suresh
Bengaluru Central - Rizwan Arshad
Kolar - KH Muniyappa
Chamarajanagar - R Dhruvanarayana
Chikkaballapura - Veerappa Moily