Rush for Cong tickets

Over 2,000 aspirants have sought tickets from Congress party for the upcoming Assembly elections from various constituencies.

Thursday was the last date for submission of applications. The party received 2,100 filled in applications of the 2,800 that were purchased. The sale of applications saw the party generate a revenue of Rs 2.5 crore.

While all sitting MLAs have sought tickets for yet another term, none of the Members of Parliament has sought tickets, expect Mysore MP H Vishwanath. Both Vishwanath and his son Amit V Devarahatti have sought tickets from K R Nagar. It is rumoured that CLP leader Siddaramaiah hasn’t submitted the application though he had bought the application a couple of days back.

While the Mahila Congress had demanded at least one ticket per Lok Sabha constituency, only a small percentage of women aspirants, less than 200 have sought tickets under the general category, while 90 sought tickets under SC/ST category. Prominent women aspirants include Tejaswini Ramesh (Bangalore South); Actor Ramya’s mother Ranjitha (Hebbal and R R Nagar); Umashri (Terdal); Actor Darshan’s mother Meena Toogudeepa Srinivas (K R Nagar); Union Minister K H Muniyappa’s daughter Roopa Shashikala (KGF); Manjula Naidu (R R Nagar); Rani Satish (R R Nagar); Motamma (Mudigere); and Mallajamma (Malavalli).

Also M K Solabeshwarappa, ACP, Sheshadripuram, Bangalore, has applied for VRS and sought a ticket from Hanagal in Haveri. The applications will be scrunitised by State party president G Parameshwara and sent to State election committee, which is yet to be constituted. The State committee will then forward these applications to the AICC election committee, which will issue the ‘B’ form to candidates who have fulfilled all the criteria.