Kharge’s son-in-law, 5 Ministers’ children figure in Congress 2nd list of Karnataka candidates

PTI, Mar 21, 2024, 10:26 PM IST

Representative image (Source: PTI)

Bengaluru: AICC President M Mallikarjun Kharge’s son-in-law and children of five Ministers figure in the second list of 17 candidates in Karnataka announced by the Congress on Thursday for the Lok Sabha elections.

Satish Jarkiholi’s daughter Priyanka Jarkiholi (Chikkodi), Ramalinga Reddy’s daughter Sowmya Reddy (Bangalore South), Shivanand Patil’s daughter Samyukta S Patil (Bagalkot), Laxmi Hebbalkar’s son Mrinal Ravindra Hebbalkar (Belgaum) and Eshwar Khandre’s son Sagar Khandre (Bidar) will be contesting in the polls.

Mansoor Ali Khan, son of former Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha K Rahman Khan, and Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of Minister S S Mallikarjun and daughter-in-law of veteran party leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa, are the party’s nominees from Bangalore Central and Davangere, respectively.

In Gulbarga (Kalaburagi), Kharge’s son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani will be in the fray. Kharge had won the seat in 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections but lost in 2019.

Former IIM Bangalore professor M V Rajeev Gowda, the Vice-Chairman of Karnataka State Policy and Planning Commission, is contesting from Bangalore North. He was earlier a Rajya Sabha MP.

G Kumar Naik, who has been fielded from Raichur constituency is a former IAS officer, while K Jayaprakash Hegde, who was until recently the Chairman of Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes that submitted the Socio-Economic and Education Survey report to the state government, has been announced as candidate for Udupi-Chikmagalur.

The other candidates who figure in the second list are M Laxman (Mysore), Vinod Asooti (Dharwad), Padmaraj (Dakshina Kannada), K Rajashekar Basavaraj Hitnal (Koppal), Anjali Nimbalkar (Uttara Kannada), and B N Chandrappa (Chitradurga).

Among the candidates announced today are five women.

”For the first time five women have been given Lok Sabha tickets, more than 50 per cent of the tickets have been given to youths within 35-40 years. This is for the first time in Karnataka Congress’ history, this is a big change in favour of new faces, youngsters and educated. Everyone has strong people behind them, everyone will have accountability,” state Congress President and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said earlier today speaking about the second list.

The Congress released its first list of seven candidates in Karnataka on March 8.

The party is yet to finalise the candidates for Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Chamarajanagar and Bellary constituencies.

In Kolar, Minister K H Muniyappa wants the ticket to be given to one of his family members, while a section of leaders in the segment are favouring former Rajya Sabha member L Hanumanthaiah. The party leadership is said to be insisting Social Welfare Minister H C Mahadevappa to contest from Chamarajnagar seat, but he is seeking a ticket for his son Sunil Bose.

While Raksha Ramaiah and former CM M Veerappa Moily are said to be the contenders for Chikkaballapur segment, in Bellary, former Minister E Tukaram and former Lok Sabha member V S Ugrappa’s names are doing rounds.

The BJP swept the 2019 general elections in Karnataka winning 25 out of the 28 seats in the State, while an independent backed by the party also won. The Congress and JD(S) who fought the elections together, secured one seat each. The BJP announced candidates for 20 seats in the State last week. Polling would be held in two phases in Karnataka on April 26 and May seven.

The Congress has also named Raja Venugopal Naik from Shorapur assembly seat, which fell vacant due to the death of Congress MLA Raja Venkatappa Naik last month. By-poll to this seat will be held on May 7.