Number of Congress aspirants for B'lore North seat swells

The list of aspirants for the Congress ticket from Bangalore North LS constituency is getting bigger by the day. Nehaa S Patil, an IIM, Lucknow graduate, has jumped into the fray.

An assistant manager at KPMG a consulting firm, Patil (43) has begun her campaign seeking the support of voters. 

March 7 is the last date for filing nomination papers fpr the Congress primary and March 13 is the date of polling. She has served as Inspector of Central Excise and Customs in the Department of Customs and Central Excise. 

As many as 10 candidates are said to be aspiring for the ticket, including B L Shankar, C Narayanaswamy, G C Chandrashekar, K C Ramamurthy, Rajiv Gowda, Arathi Krishna and N L Narendra Babu. 

Sharief seeks ticket 

Senior Congress leader C K Jaffar Sharief is understood to have written a letter to AICC President Sonia Gandhi seeking ticket to contest from Bangalore Central Parliamentary constituency. Sharief is learnt to have said that he has been a loyal Congress worker for decades and has contributed to party's growth. 

Hectic lobbying is on among leaders of minority communities for ticket for the Bangalore Central seat. They include State Youth Congress president Rizwan Arshad, H T Sangliana and J Alexandar. Muslim leaders are said to be divided on who should get the ticket. Union Minority Affairs Minister Rahman Khan is said to be backing Rizwan.DH News Service