(L to R) Raksha Ramaiah, the general secretary of Indian Youth Congress; Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily.
Credit: DH Images
Bengaluru: As the 2024 general elections inch closer, selecting a candidate for Chikkaballapur Lok Sabha seat has gotten more challenging for Congress with three aspirants -- a former Chief Minister, a former minister and the general secretary of Indian Youth Congress -- eyeing for the ticket.
Former union minister and senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday expressed confidence that the party will pick him over two other aspirants who are vying for the ticket.
The names of Indian Youth Congress general secretary Raksha Ramaiah and former agriculture minister N H Shivashankar Reddy are also before the Congress high command.
"If the ticket is given to me, then I’ll win 100 per cent," Moily told DH.
According to Moily, he enjoys the support of 98 per cent of the Congress workers in Chikkaballapur. “The Congress holds six out of eight Assembly segments in Chikkaballapur. A few days ago, at a meeting convened by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, MLAs again supported my candidature,” the 84-year-old leader said.
Moily represented Chikkaballapur twice - 2009 and 2014 - before tasting defeat against BJP’s BN Bachegowda in 2019. "I lost the third time due to the wrong alliance our party had with the JD(S)," he said.
Moily pointed out that K Sudhakar, the former minister who has been fielded by BJP in Chikkaballapur, faces"negativity, including corruption charges".
Moily is seeking the ticket on the grounds that he never lost touch with Chikkaballapur after losing the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “Raksha Ramaiah came into the picture only after the Assembly elections last year,” Moily said, adding that Raksha and his father, former minister M R Seetharam, wanted to quit Congress at one point in time.
"Then there’s Shivashankar Reddy who has been trying for the ticket only for the last two months," he said, adding "I never went away from the constituency."
Meanwhile, M R Seetharam said that party will field the candidate who has emerged as popular in all the surveys. "I feel my son is a youth force and people want someone like that," he told DH.
The Congress has not announced candidates in three other segments - Kolar, Chamarajanagar and Bellary.