All India Congress Committee’s Central Election Committee is likely to announce the list of its candidates for the coming Legislative Assembly elections on or before April 5 as it is finding it difficult to finalise the same in view of the increasing competition among the leaders/workers to get the ticket.
KPCC president G. Parameshwara and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah, who met AICC president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi to discuss the post-poll announcement developments including the criteria for selecting candidates are returning to the city in the early hours of Saturday.
But, sources said that they were again going to Delhi on Monday and stay put there till the list is announced. Apart from finalising the candidates, the leaders are faced with the dilemma of whether to admit independent MLAs and a dozen others into the party and accommodate them, without whom, the party top brass thinks, it would not be easy to win in the respective constituencies, where the local party leaders have lost touch with the voters.
ADVERTISEMENT
Citing the case of C.P. Yogeshwar with presspersons, a top KPCC leader said that the former Minister was the only one, who could win as he had both the money and clout with the voters.
Incidentally, Ramanna, who was defeated by Mr. Yogeshwar was standing a few yards away from him when he whispered with the media saying that he got only 6,500 votes against the BJP and how could we repose confidence in him again.
ADVERTISEMENT
This argument may hold good for other such constituencies as well.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress List Screening Committee Luizanho Faliero is meeting the more than 30 presidents of the district Congress committees on the list of candidates they have proposed to the AICC to give ticket.
Their applications had already been vetted by the chairmen of the divisional teams, who brought down the 2,150 applications to 600.