The Congress, which witnessed weeklong protests by its workers demanding ticket to contest the Assembly elections, on Friday announced candidates for 177 of the 224 constituencies, which includes the top leaders — Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G. Parameshwara (Koratagere-SC) and the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah (Varuna).
A salient feature of the list is that the AICC has given tickets to one independent MLA and former Minister Shivaraj Thangadagi (Kanakagiri-SC) and H.V. Venkatesh (Pavagada-SC), son of another independent MLA Venkataramanappa as well as MLAs B.C. Patil (Hirekeru) and former minister Malikayya Guttedar (Afzalpur), about whose candidature there was fierce debate in the party whether they should be accommodated. The former Minister C.P. Yogeshwar, who tried till the last moment to join the party had not been accommodated and instead Sadat Ali Khan, a former MLA, has been given ticket from Channapatna.
A total of 41 former Ministers, four former Union Ministers, four former MPs and eight women, including actor Umashree and Karnataka Mahila Congress President Manjula Naidu. R (Rajajinagar), have found their names on the list. The octogenarian former minister Kagodu Thimmappa (Sagar), the former Minister H.K. Patil (Gadag), the former KPCC president and former minister R.V. Deshpande and the former union ministera Siddu Nyamegowda (Jamakhandi), V. Srinivasa Prasad (Nanjangud-SC), Basavaraya Rayaraddi and M.H. Ambareesh (Mandya), the former Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar (Srinivasapur) and former Legislative Council Chairman B.L.Shankar (Dasarahalli) have been included. The former Chief Minister Veerendra Patil`s son Kailash Patil has been accommodated in Gulbarga South so is the former Railway Minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief`s son-in-law Syed Yasin (Raichur).
Among former Ministers T.B. Jayachandra (Sira), M.Y. Meti (Bagalkot), Tanveer Sait (Naasimharaja), B. Ramanath Rai (Bantwal), Roshan Baig (Shivajinagar), B.K. Chandrasekhar (Basavanagudi), B. Shivaram (Arsikere), Anjanamurthy (Nelamangala-SC), Ramalinga Reddy (B.T.M. Layout), K.J. George (Sarvajna Nagar), D.K. Shivakumar (Kankapura), have been given ticket . Prominent former ministers are Baburao Chinchanasoor (Gurmitkal), H.C. Mahadevappa (T. Narasipur), Malaka Raddi (Yadgir), H.S. Mahadeva Prasad (Gundlupet), Prakash Hukkeri (Chikkodi-Sadalaga), Sharanabasappa Darshanapur (Shahpur), Qamarul Islam (Gulbarga North), Amaregoua L. Bayyapura (Kushtagi), K.B. Koliwad (Ranebennur), S. Kumar Bangarappa (Sorab), C.S.Nadagouda (Muddebihal) have been given ticket.
