Bengaluru: The temperature is set to soar outside an up-market hotel here on Wednesday as two lieutenants of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, veteran Congress leader C.K. Jaffer Sharief’s grandson Rehman Sharief, an entrepreneur backed by Vokkaligara Sangha, and a businessman and camp follower of the late deputy chief minister M.P. Prakash, all ticket aspirants for bypoll to Hebbal, will face a screening committee to push their individual winability factor.
With more than a dozen contenders vying for the ticket, KPCC has constituted a screening committee to interact with each aspirant and submit a report to state unit president Dr G Parameshwar on pros and cons of fielding each of them.
The committee, too, has several members—Member of Parliament Muddahanume Gowda, vice president of state unit B.L. Shankar, senior leader N.S. Bosa Raju, Mr M.D. Lakshminarayan and Mr Ivan D’Souza, both MLCs, city unit president Shekar, and city in-charge minister K.J. George.
Each aspirant is likely to turn up with his supporters at the hotel and this could result in sloganeering and tension at the venue, particularly in view of the rivalry between Mr H.M. Revanna and Mr Byrathi Suresh, both camp followers of Siddaramaiah, and leaders of various communities demanding the ticket for their candidate.
The others in the race are Mr Rehman Sharief, Mr N.K. Chandrashekar, backed by Vokkaligara Sangha, R.V. Venkatesh, chief whip in the Legislative Council, and Mr Ravi Shankar Shetty, an associate of the late Mr Prakash.
Sources in the party said Mr Digvijay Singh, party general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Mr Siddaramaiah and Dr Parameshwar would meet subsequently to pick the candidate for Hebbal.
These leaders would announce the candidate for bypolls scheduled for February 13 after consulting party president Sonia Gandhi, sources added.
Meanwhile, AICC general secretary in charge for Karnataka Digvijay Singh will be arriving here in a couple of days to discuss and finalise the candidates for Hebbal and the other two Assembly constituencies which will go to polls.
Bypolls would also be held to fill vacancies in Bidar and Devadurga (R) Assembly constituencies on the same day.
