Congress ticket only for children of CM, Ramalinga Reddy, Muniyappa

Only children of three senior Congress leaders, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son Dr Yathindra from Varuna, Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy's daughter Sowmya Reddy from Jayanagar and former Union Minister K H Muniyappa's daughter Roopa Shashidhar from KGF, are likely to get party the ticket to contest the May 12 Assembly polls.

Though over a dozen senior leaders have sought the ticket for their children, the Congress high command has approved only three candidates as they have nursed the constituencies for long and their chances of winnability are high, said a senior Congress leader.

The Congress screening committee headed by Madhusudhan Mistry is learnt to have rejected the plea by several leaders saying that the party has to give tickets to other leaders based on caste combinations.

The screening committee also decided to leave it to the Central Election Committee (CEC) headed by Congress president Rahul Gandhi to decide on Siddaramaiah contesting from two Assembly segments, Chamundeshwari in Mysuru district and Badami in Bagalkot district.

The reported plea by Karnataka Pradesh Congress president G Parameshwara to allow him to contest from Koratagere (SC Reserved) in Tumakuru district and Pulakeshinagar (SC Reserved)) in Bengaluru has also been referred to the CEC by the screening committee.

The CEC will meet here at 10 am on Friday and clear the list approved by the screening committee. Sources said that the party may announce candidates for all the 224 seats in one go.

The party reportedly asked Public Works Minister H C Mahadevappa to decide whether he or his son Sunil Bose will contest from T Narasipura constituency. The party rejected Mahadevappa's request to field his son from Nanjangud Assembly segment by replacing sitting MLA Kalale Krishnamurthy, said a leader.

Though Law Minister T B Jayachandra sought the ticket for his son Santosh from Chikkanayakanahalli in Tumakuru district, the party decided to field a Yadava community leader from there to maintain caste balance as large number of voters of that community live in Tumakuru and Chitradurga districts.

From Karkala in Udupi district, the party is likely to field former MLA Gopal Bandari, a loyalist of former Chief Minister M Veerappa Moily.

Despite Siddaramaiah insisting that all the sitting MLAs and new entrants should get the ticket, the party leaders left the decision on renominating N A Haris from Shantinagar and H Y Meti from Bagalkot to the CEC. While Haris' son is in jail in connection with a recent attack on a youth at a pub, Meti quit as Excise minister over a sex CD scandal.

Leaders have also recommended the name of former MLA B Prasanna Kumar from Pulakeshinagar. Siddaramaiah has suggested the names of his additional secretary Bhimasenarao Shinde for Aurad and private secretary Heera Naik for Mayakonda seat replacing sitting MLA B Shivamurthy Naik. The decision on these two seats was also left to the CEC.