Credit: Special Arrangement
Bengaluru: The countdown to the byelections to the three assembly seats in Karnataka – Shiggaon, Channapatna and Sandur – having started, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday huddled with his Cabinet colleagues to assess the Congress’s chances at the hustings.
The party is likely to announce its candidates for all the three segments in a day or two.
The CM, who is optimistic about the party’s chances in all the three seats, is learnt to have urged all the ministers to do the utmost they can to ensure a sweep by the Congress. “We should win them all. Therefore, everyone must handle their responsibilities efficiently,” Siddaramaiah is learnt to have said.
One of the ministers who participated in the meeting confirmed to DH that each of them had made suggestions on the candidate they thought was best for each of the three constituencies. “We will announce our candidates in a day or two,” the minister said.
Siddaramaiah reportedly expressed concern over the possibility of the investigative agencies being further misused by BJP in the run-up to the bypolls. Siddaramaiah exhorted his Cabinet to counter what he dubbed the BJP’s ‘false propaganda’ on the caste census, internal quotas, and the demand among Panchamasalis for reservation.
The CM called on the ministers to convince leaders of the communities concerned, of the Congress being receptive to and in favour of their demands.
Former Bengaluru Rural MP D K Suresh is learnt to be the frontrunner for the Congress ticket for Channapatna, while Ballari MP E Tukaram’s wife Annapoorna, his daughter Souparnika, and former Zilla Panchayat member Lakshman are on the list of probable candidates for the Sandur constituency.
Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan, who lost to Basavaraj Bommai in the Assembly elections last year, is vying for the Shiggaon ticket, as are Haveri District Congress president Sanjeevkumar Neeralagi, former minister R Shankar and prominent local leader Rajeshwari Patil.
The bypolls to the three seats are scheduled to be held on November 13. Apart from Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, ministers K H Muniyappa, Eshwar Khandre, Santosh Lad, Ramalinga Reddy were among those in attendance.