The State Election Committee (SEC) of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has finalised the list of probable candidates for the Assembly elections, with a focus on bringing youngsters to the legislature.
According to KPCC sources, the list will be placed before the Central Election Committee headed by the former Chief Minister of Goa Luizinho Faleiro soon, which will select the candidates.
Youth to get priority
Sources said it was resolved to accord priority to youth, as suggested by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. The SEC held meetings in a resort near Devanahalli for the last two days to finalise the list, keeping in mind Mr. Gandhi’s idea of building the party by empowering the youth and creating middle-level leadership.
The party had constituted four divisional-level committees headed by the former Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh (Mysore), party general secretary B.K. Hariprasad (Gulbarga), the former KPCC president B. Janardhana Poojary (Bangalore) and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council S.R. Patil (Belgaum) to scrutinise 2,150 applications received from ticket aspirants.
The divisional-level committees submitted the list of probable candidates to the core committee comprising All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka Madhusudan Mistry, AICC secretary V. Hanumantha Rao, KPCC president G. Parameshwara and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah and Mr. Patil.
The leaders held discussions with the heads of the four committees and it was resolved to offer ticket to young workers. It was also resolved not to give ticket to those with criminal background.
It was decided to accord priority to women and those from backward classes to abide by the principle of social justice.
Leaders including M. Mallikarjun Kharge, M. Veerappa Moily, K. Rahman Khan, K.H. Muniyappa, Oscar Fernandes, C.K. Jaffer Sharief, D.K. Shivakumar, M.V. Rajasekharan, R.V. Deshpande, Kagodu Thimmappa, H.K. Patil and Motamma participated in Sunday’s meeting.
