Congress in search of winnable candidates in some seats: Jarkholi

Bengaluru:  Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi, who is also the Karnataka Congress working president, conceded on Friday that his party is finding it difficult to pick 'winnable' candidates in some Lok Sabha segments in the state.

Divulging details about the ministers' meeting convened by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday night here, Jarkiholi said: "Though there is no dearth of candidates in every seat, the party has to look for winnable candidates in some constituencies, if it has improve its seat tally substantially in the forthcoming polls."

He added that both Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, have instructed the district in-charge ministers and the district observers to find suitable winnable candidates and refer such names to them. "We are not averse to the idea of bringing candidates from other parties to win elections, wherever there are weak candidates," he asserted in response to a question.

The Belagavi strongman further stated that the district ministers and the district observer teams headed by the ministers, had submitted two sets of candidate lists of their respective districts, while another set of candidate lists were submitted by the observers.

"According to these lists, in almost 15 seats, both, the observers and the district in-charge ministers, have suggested only single names of candidates. The party high command might inform these candidates orally, to start working in their respective seats in a week or two. Meanwhile, the party's central leaders may convene a meeting either in New Delhi or here to discuss the list of candidates tentatively on February 10, where the party may decide to announce the first list of candidates or may instruct orally to these candidates," he explained.

On both seats in Belagavi district, the minister asserted that there are multiple aspirants and at least 2-3 candidates' names had been suggested in each seat. "The final decision of picking the winning candidate in both the seats in Belagavi will depend on whether the chief minister, the deputy chief minister and the central leaders will take collective decisions on this matter," he said.