Ministers in Congress’ list of candidates

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said the Congress’ candidates for the Lok Sabha elections would be announced in the first week of March.

“The names of a couple of Ministers have been recommended to the high command after they expressed interest to contest the polls,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said. Asked if MLAs and MLCs too would fight the elections, the Chief Minister said the high command would take a decision on the issue.

Mr. Siddaramaiah arrived here to participate in a series of programmes. He was received by senior party leaders and officials at the Lalitha Mahal helipad.

Terse reply

Asked about the possibility of the Bharatiya Janata Party fielding the former Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda as its candidate from the Mysore Lok Sabha constituency, he said: “Let him contest. Nobody is stopping him.”

Mr. Siddaramaiah said the State government was planning to introduce a law on the lines of the Lokpal legislation. However, he said it would not be introduced in the ongoing legislature session.

“The modalities are still being worked out. We want the bill to be on the lines of the Lokpal Act introduced by the Centre.”

The Chief Minister said Housing Minister M.H. Ambareesh was stable and responding to the treatment. “I think he [Ambareesh] will be on ventilator for another day,” Mr. Siddaramaiah added.