Sitting Congress MPs may get nod again

Bangalore: Amidst strong hints that almost all sitting Lok Sabha members would get tickets to contest the Lok Sabha elections, Karnataka Pradesh Co­n­g­ress Co­mm­ittee (KPCC) has convened its el­­ection committee me­et­ing Monday afternoon.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a highly placed source in the KPCC said, “Both Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah and KPCC president Dr G. Pa­rameshwar have co­m­pleted the first round of consultations with lo­cal leaders including MPs, Legislators last month when they received three or four names for 13-15 seats, while for 12-14 se­ats, they have received single names.”

Apart from nine sitting MPs, three names including those of senior leader B. Janardhan Po­ojary for Mangalore Lok Sabha seat have been recommended. “In two or three seats, leaders have suggested that central leaders take a final call on candidates. In­ter­es­tingly, Tumkur seat falls in this category where Law and parliamentary affairs minister T.B. Ja­ya­chandra and Ma­dh­ugiri Congress leader K.N. Rajanna have been rep­ortedly lobbying to get the ticket for their sons,” the source exp­la­ined.

Congress leaders in Chi­tradurga passed a unanimous resolution demanding that KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar be given the ticket for the seat but re­tracted after Dr Pa­ra­meshwar admonished them. “Dr Parameshwar said he was not keen on con­testing and would like to remain in state pol­itics. Chitradurga le­ad­ers have now recommended more than half a dozen names,” the source explained.

The 36-member El­ec­tion Committee will be rec­ommending two or th­re­e names for such consti­tuencies, while it ma­y not debate much on con­stituencies where sin­gle names have been rec­ommended. “The AICC has already formed a screening committee headed by Vayalar Ravi and Dr Charan Das.

This committee will have Digvijay Singh, KPCC president, Dr Par­am­eshwar and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as members and will fin­alise names for all consti­tuencies. Once this process is over, the final list will sent to the Ce­ntral election committee for approval,” the source hinted and added that there are still two more rounds to go before finalising the candidates’ list.