The curious case of Moily missing from Cong first list

The Congress central leadership has withheld the Lok Sabha ticket to Union Minister M Veerappa Moily as concerns were raised over his electoral prospects from his Chikkaballapur parliamentary constituency.

Moily’s name was missing from the Congress’ first list of 194 Lok Sabha candidates announced on Saturday night.

Congress sources said the Karnataka unit had recommended Moily’s name from Chikkaballapur only to be told to carry out a reassessment of his electoral prospects from the constituency. The State unit is also learnt to have been asked to suggest a new face, if required.

Internal survey

An internal survey carried out at the instance of the Congress high command had claimed that the former chief minister may find the going tough in his constituency as he is not known to enjoy the backing of State leaders the way he had in 2009.

While Moily in Bangalore on Saturday stated that he was unaware as to why his name did not figure in the first list of candidates, he stayed put in New Delhi on Sunday. KPCC president G Parameshwara said Moily’s name will be in the second list.

A senior Congress leader who travelled along with Moily to Bangalore from Delhi a couple of days ago said he (Moily) was very sure of his name being cleared by the high command. Moily himself is on the central election committee, and all the sitting MPs’ names were cleared. But eventually Moily’s name did not make it to the list, the MP said.  
Sources close to Moily said the CEC would be meeting again on March 12 to finalise some more names including that of Moily.

Sources in the party said the high command is waiting for the JD(S) to name its nominee to Chikkaballapur.

In case a Vokkaliga is fielded by the JD(S), then Moily may be fielded as Vokkaliga votes would be divided between the JD(S) and B N Bachegowda of the BJP. The Congress is also considering the name of minister Krishna Byre Gowda as a replacement for Moily.

Gowda refused to contest from Bangalore North. Also, Moily himself is keen on becoming a Rajya Sabha member, it is said. However, Moily remained incommunicado.