Rahul to decide on tickets for incumbent legislators

The Congress is under pressure from MLAs and MLCs to be given a ticket to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, despite the party having taken a stand that incumbent legislators will not be accommodated.

The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has, according to sources, decided to leave it to Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s discretion to take a call.

The names of at least six incumbent legislators are doing the rounds for the Lok Sabha tickets - Shivajinagar MLA R Roshan Baig, MLC Rizwan Arshad (Bangalore Central), MLCs H M Revanna, M Narayanaswamy, Byatarayanapura MLA Krishna Byre Gowda (Bangalore North) and Haliyal MLA R V Deshpande (Uttara Kannada).

“One of the criteria fixed by the AICC is that sitting MLAs and MLCs should not be given tickets. This will be flexible as the party has relaxed such criteria in the past. So, like always, Rahul Gandhi will take a call on this,” a source said.