JOIN USThe Congress high command, which held a meeting on the selection of candidates for the coming Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka on Friday, is likely to announce the list in a day or two.
The meeting of the Central Election Committee headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi took the opinions of the State leaders about each proposed candidate.
The meeting also decided to field all the nine sitting MPs from the constituencies they represent. However, the State leaders asked the high command to decide the candidates for the “contentious” segments such as Uttara Kannada, Haveri, Chitradurga, Chikkodi, Shimoga and Bangalore Central where either more contestants are seeking seats or none of the proposed candidates is ready to join the poll fray.
Though the high command is keen to field Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya from Chitradurga, Sugar Minister Prakash Hukkeri from Chikkodi, Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda from Bangalore North and Legislative Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa from Shimoga, none of them is ready to contest the polls.
All the three ministers are camping in Delhi and trying hard to convince the high command they cannot contest the polls. For Bangalore North and Dakshina Kannada, the party decided to wait for results of the primaries before announcing the candidates.
Karnataka in-charge General Secretary, Digvijay Singh, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G Parameshwara and others attended the meeting.
Some of the probable names are Bellary: N Y Hanumanthappa; Bijapur: Prakash Rathod; Bangalore South: Nandan Nilekani; Belgaum: Laxmi Hebbalkar; Davangere: S S Tumkur: Muddahanumegowda; Mysore: H Vishwanath;Udupi-Chikmagalur: K Jayaprakash Hegde; Chikkaballapur: M Veerappa Moily; Kolar: K H Muniyappa; Mandya: Ramya; Bangalore Rural: D K Suresh; Chamarajanagar: Dhruvanarayana; Gulbarga: Mallikarjun Kharge; Bidar: Dharam Singh.