Nanjangud ticket: Congress in a fix after Dhruvanarayan's death

After the former MP's death, his supporters are mounting pressure on the Congress to give the Nanjangud ticket to his son

The Congress has found itself in a quagmire following the untimely death of its working president R Dhruvanarayana, who wanted to contest the upcoming Assembly election from the Nanjangud constituency.

After the former Chamarajanagara MP's death, his supporters are mounting pressure on the Congress to give the Nanjangud ticket to his son Darshan.

However, former minister H C Mahadevappa, who is a close aide of Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, is also a Nanjangud ticket aspirant.

While Mahadevappa said the party would decide on this, Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar said whatever is needed to "give peace" to Dhruvanarayan's soul would be done.

Also Read | KPCC working president R Dhruvanarayana dies of heart attack

"AICC president Mallikarjun Khage was close to Dhruvanarayan. The ticket decision will be made by (Kharge). I have given my opinion on the matter. We're still under the shock of Dhruvanarayan's death. We will do whatever is necessary to give peace to his soul," Shivakumar said.

The Nanjangud constituency is currently held by BJP's B Harshavardhan.

Apart from Dhruvanarayan and Mahadevappa, Congress leaders Kalale Keshavamurthy and C Narendra had applied for the ticket.

Rajajinagar ticket fight

A section of Congress leaders from the Rajajinagar constituency met Shivakumar on Monday and urged him not to consider giving the ticket to Puttanna, the BJP MLC who joined the party last week. Congress' Bhavya Narasimhamurthy, one of the Rajajinagar ticket aspirants, is against giving the ticket to party-hoppers before they demonstrate commitment to the party's ideology.

"Who said we're giving the ticket to Puttanna? The party will decide what is right," Shivakumar said.

Op Lotus 'lynchpin' joins Cong

Businessman Uday K M, also known as Kadalur Uday Gowda who is believed to have been one of the lynchpins for the Operation Lotus that brought down the Congress-JD(S) coalition in 2019, joined Congress on Monday. He was inducted by KPCC president D K Shivakumar. Asked about inducting Uday despite his role in engineering defections, Shivakumar said: "A Manju, Srinivas Gowda, Gubbi Vasu, Shivalinge Gowda, Madhu Bangarappa...they've shifted and returned to Congress. It's politics. There will be compulsions."