If caste and community equations had not been in its way, the Congress high command would have refused tickets to at least 30 per cent of the MLAs in the last Assembly for the forthcoming Karnataka elections.
However, with the party expecting a close fight with the BJP and the JD(S) in the State, factors like these would have an overbearing preference over the performance, or the lack of it, of the “sitting” MLAs.

Highly-placed AICC sources indicated on Wednesday that even now, a number of MLAs in the last Assembly might find themselves without a ticket to fight the elections, and the scenario would become clearer in the days to come as the selection process is on with a meeting of the Pradesh Election Committee scheduled for Wednesday.
What has made the task of the candidate selection both easy and difficult, the sources said, was the delimitation exercise.

“It has become easy because now the party can give tickets to new faces as many constituencies have undergone change in their nature, and at the same time difficult because it has become tougher to calculate the ‘sitting:getting’ ratio. That is how many of the ‘sitting’ MLAs would get the ticket,” the sources said.

AICC general-secretary Prithviraj Chavan and other leaders are closely monitoring the whole process with the focus to effect a sense of “social engineering” in candidate selection so that representatives of all castes and communities would get proper representation, the sources said.

Meanwhile, the sources said the Congress manifesto for the polls would be ready by April 15, with the likely emphasis on pro-common man measures.

“The first phase of elections will be very crucial for Congress as it covers the area in south Karnataka where the party is traditionally strong,” the sources said.