Congress ignores Moily, fields Raksha from Chikkballapur

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday fielded youth leader Raksha Ramaiah from Chikkballapur Lok Sabha seat despite lobbying by former Chief Minister M Veerappa Moily.

The party also announced the candidature for two other segments with E Thukaram from Bellary and Sunil Bose for Chamarajanagar. With this, the party has announced candidates for all segments except Kolar, which it has kept pending due to infighting within the organisation.

Raksha, son of Legislative Council member and former minister M R Seetharam, belongs to the Balija community which has significant presence in Bagepalli and Chikkballapur Assembly segments which fall under the Chikkballapur Lok Sabha seat.

Even as Raksha was touring the constituency for the past two months, Moily was lobbying hard for a ticket. Moily, who represented Chikkballapur twice in the Lok Sabha, has claimed that all party leaders favoured his candidature. Moily lost the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the segment against BJP's B N Bache Gowda. However, CM Siddaramaiah and Congress state unit president D K Shivakumar favoured Ramaiah's candidature, sources said.

The party fielded Sunil Bose, son of Social Welfare Minister H C Mahadevappa from Chamarajanagar (SC) reserve seat. Though there was pressure on Mahadevappa to join the fray, the party decided to field Bose as his father was reluctant to fight polls.

By fielding Bose, the Congress has given the tickets to yet another son of a minister in the Siddaramaiah government.

The party favoured Sandur MLA E Thukaram from Bellary (ST). Though he was lobbying for his daughter, the party chose the MLA due to his winnability. Thukaram is the lone sitting MLA from Congress in the fray for the Lok Sabha polls. Earlier, there was speculation that the party would field many ministers and MLAs.