3 MLCs among dozen Congmen vying for Hebbal ticket

More than a dozen Congressmen, including three MLCs, are vying for the party ticket for the upcoming byelection to Hebbal Assembly constituency, scheduled for February 13.

Prominent among the ticket aspirants are B S Suresh, H M Revanna, R V Venkatesh (all MLCs), former MLC Nazeer Ahmed, State Youth Congress president Rizwan Arshad, senior leader C K Jaffer Sharief's grandson C K Abdul Rahman Sharief, former MP C Narayanaswamy and Ravi Shankar Shetty. As many as five contenders belong to minority community. The byelection has been necessitated due to death of Jagadish Kumar of the BJP, who represented the constituency in the Assembly.

Some of aspirants started the spadework soon after the seat fell vacant. For instance, Suresh, widely known as Byrathi Suresh, has already set up an office near RT Nagar and has been regularly holding meetings with the party workers as part of the preparations. In a handbill distributed by him to the residents of the constituency on the occasion of new year, he expressed his wish to contest in the bypoll and sought their blessings.

Suresh is the brother of Congress MLA from KR Puram, B S Basavaraj (Byrathi Basavaraj). The Byrathi brothers, who are into real estate business, are close associates of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Suresh still has over two and half years as MLC. Revanna, who unsuccessfully contested from the constituency in 2008, has about four and half years term as MLC. He too has been making preparations to contest the election. R V Venkatesh, whose term as MLC will end in June 2016, wants to contest from the constituency, sources in the Congress said.

The Sharief saga
Rahman Sharief had unsuccessfully contested from the constituency in the 2013 Assembly elections. But his grandfather, Jaffer Sharief has been making efforts to get the ticket for Rahman. Jaffer Sharief recently met Siddaramaiah and urged him to field Rahman Sharief. Jaffer Sharief had in 2014 threatened to quit the party for denying him the ticket to contest Lok Sabha elections from Bengaluru Central constituency.

Sources said Rizwan Arshad, who unsuccessfully contested from Bengaluru Central constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, is planning to try his luck in Hebbal bypoll. Nazeer Ahmed, who was denied ticket by the party to contest the recently concluded Legislative Council elections from Kolar local body constituency, Abdul Hafeez Khan and Mahaboob Pasha, belonging to the minority community, are among the ticket aspirants.

The constituency has sizable number of people belonging to minority community.
Ravi Shankar Shetty, who had aspired to contest from Hebbal in the 2008 Assembly polls, is lobbying to get the ticket for the byelection. A group of associations, including Bengaluru Bunt Sangha, Billava Sangha, Bengaluru Hotel Owners' Association, held a press conference on Wednesday and demanded that the Congress should give ticket to Shetty.