The Congress on Saturday constituted four divisional-level committees to finalise candidates for the Assembly elections scheduled for May.
The decision was taken by the KPCC election panel, which met at a resort near Devanahalli, Bangalore.
KPCC president G. Parameshwara, AICC general secretary and party’s Karnataka in-charge Madhusudan Mistry, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah, Union Minister Mallikarjun Kharge and other senior leaders attended the meeting.
According to the KPCC, there are 2,150 ticket aspirants for the 224 seats constituencies in the State.
The former Union Minister and former KPCC president B. Janardhana Poojary will head the Bangalore division and the former Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh, MP, the Mysore division.
B.K. Hariprasad, former MP, and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council S.R. Patil, will head the Gulbarga and Belgaum divisions, respectively. Each team has 15 members.
A list would be prepared after studying the advantages and disadvantages of the aspirants and it would be sent to the Congress high command.
Former Ministers, MLAs, MPs, actors, writers, and advocates are among those who have sought party tickets.
In the recent urban local body elections, the party did well in Mangalore, Bellary and Davanagere city corporations, while the performance was not satisfactory in the Old Mysore region, particularly in Kolar, Chickballapur, Mandya, Hassan and Tumkur districts, the leaders said.
Speaking to presspersons, party leader D.K. Shivakumar said the leaders would discuss the strategy and their tour programme on Sunday.
On admitting BJP, JD(S) and Independent legislators into the party, Mr. Shivakumar said AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi would discuss it with Dr. Parameshwara and Mr. Siddaramaiah in Delhi on March 21.
Union Ministers M. Veerappa Moily, K. Rahman Khan, and K.H. Muniyappa and leaders such as C.K. Jaffer Sharief, Mr. Poojary, Veeranna Mattikatti and Oscar Fernandes attended the meeting.
