Children of five Karnataka ministers in Congress’ new list of 16 Lok Sabha candidates from state

New Delhi/Bengaluru: The Congress’ Central Election Committee on Tuesday cleared tickets to 16 Lok Sabha segments in Karnataka, which include children of five state Cabinet ministers. 

Congress leaders are meeting again on Wednesday to decide on the remaining five seats. 

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy’s daughter Sowmya Reddy (Bangalore South), Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi’s daughter Priyanka Jarkiholi (Chikkodi), Women & Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar’s son Mrinal (Belgaum), Agricultural Marketing Minister Shivanand Patil’s daughter Samyukta (Bagalkot) and Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre’s son Sagar Khandre (Bidar) will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. 

The committee, headed by Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, is yet to finalise the candidates for Kolar, Chitradurga, Chikkaballapur, Chamarajanagar and Bellary constituencies since many contenders are lobbying for tickets.

In Gulbarga, which is the All India Congress Committee (AICC) president’s turf, Kharge’s son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani will be the candidate.

For Davangere, the Congress has decided to field senior MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa’s daughter-in-law Prabha Mallikarjun. Her husband SS Mallikarjun is the mines & geology minister. 

Former IIM Bangalore professor M V Rajeev Gowda, who was earlier a Rajya Sabha member, got the Bangalore North ticket. 

In Bangalore Central, the Congress is fielding Mansoor Ali Khan, son of former Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson K Rahman Khan. 

The Congress had earlier announced candidates for seven seats. 

For the Kolar seat, Food Minister K H Muniyappa insisted that ticket should be given to one of his family members while local leaders favoured former Rajya Sabha member L Hanumanthaiah.

Former MP B N Chandrappa and J J Hatti Thippeswamy, who lost the 2014 Lok Sabha seat from Congress from the same segment was lobbying for it. For Chikkaballapur segment, Raksha Ramaiah and former Minister H S Shivashankar Reddy demanded the tickets. From Bellary, Sowparnika alias Chaitnaya Thukaram and former Lok Sabha member V S Ugrappa were strong contenders while for Chamarajnagar seat, Sunil Bose, son of Social Welfare Minister H C Mahadevappa and former MLA Nanjundaswamy were lobbying.

Though the CEC cleared the name of Radhkrishna Doddamani, son-in-law of Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge for the Gulbarga seat, the final decision was left to Kharge whether to field him or not.

Sowmya Reddy

Jayaprakash Hegde

Mrinal Hebbalkar

The candidates

Bangalore North: M V Rajeev Gowda

Bangalore South: Sowmya Reddy

Bangalore Central: Mansoor Ali Khan

Mysore: M Laxmana

Davangere: Prabha Mallikarjuna

Dharwad: Vinod Asooti

Gulbarga: Radhakrishna Doddamani

Raichur: G Kumar Naik

Bagalkot: Samyukta Patil

Dakshina Kannada: Padmaraj

Udupi-Chikmagalur: Jayaprakash Hegde

Koppal: Rajshekhar Hitnal

Uttara Kannada: Anjali Nimbalkar

Bidar: Sagar Khandre

Belgaum: Mrinal Hebbalkar

Chikkodi: Priyanka Jarkiholi