Intense competition for Congress ticket in Kundgol Assembly constituency

Nearly 50 leaders in race for Cong tickets in 7 seats in dist

More number of aspirants seeking party ticket to contest from a constituency where the sitting MLA belongs to their party itself is not a common phenomenon. But Kundgol Assembly constituency in Dharwad district is witnessing such a race for the Congress ticket.

After the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) completed the process of receiving applications from the leaders who want to contest as the Congress candidates in the forthcoming Assembly elections, it has come to fore that the number of applications submitted seeking the Congress ticket from Kundgol constituency has reached 14, which is the highest among all the seven constituencies in the district.

Kusumavati Shivalli of the Congress is the sitting MLA of Kundgol constituency after she won the bye-elections in 2019 following the demise of her husband and then minister C S Shivalli. Then too, the Congress and the JD(S) rebel candidates had filed nominations, and they withdrew the papers after the then Congress-JD(S) alliance leaders convinced them to do so.

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This time also, the Congress is witnessing an intense race for the party ticket for Kundgol segment. In addition to sitting MLA Kusumavati Shivalli and late C S Shivalli’s brother Muttannna Shivalli, former MLA M S Akki, Chandrashekhar Juttal and others have sought the Congress ticket.

“The number of aspirants in Kundgol increased as there was a rumour earlier that Kusumavati Shivalli may not be interested to contest this time. Some have a feeling that she is new to politics as she entered the field only in 2019. This also made several leaders become the ticket aspirants this time,” says a Congress leader.

Interestingly, former minister Vinay Kulkarni and Ismail Tamatagar are the only two aspirants for the Congress ticket for Dharwad rural constituency. BJP’s Amruth Desai is representing this seat at present.

Former minister Santosh Lad, former MLC Nagaraj Chabbi, and Bangaresh Hiremath have sought the ticket for Kalghatagi constituency where BJP’s C M Nimbannavar is the MLA.

Last election’s defeated candidate Vinod Asuti, former MLA N H Konaraddi who quit the JD(S) and joined the Congress, former minister K N Gaddi, and five others have applied for Navalgund ticket. Minister Shankar Patil Munenakoppa of BJP is the MLA from this segment now.

For city segments

Among the three constituencies in the city areas of Hubballi-Dharwad, the maximum number of applications is for Hubballi-Dharwad West constituency, with 10 leaders, including Deepak Chinchore, Nagaraj Gouri, Mayur More, Kirti More, P H Neeralkeri, Basavaraj Malakari, and Altaf Kittur seeking the Congress ticket to contest in this segment which has now Arvind Bellad of BJP as its MLA.

For Hubballi-Dharwad Central constituency, which is represented by Jagadish Shettar of BJP, former mayor Anilkumar Patil, corporator Niranjan Hiremath, Rajat Ullagaddimath, Sadanand Danganavar, Girish Gadigeppagoudar, and three more leaders who have sought the Congress ticket.

Shakir Sanadi informed that he has sought tickets for Shiggaon and H-D Central in a single application.

Along with sitting MLA Prasad Abbayya, two former corporators have sought the Congress ticket for Hubballi-Dharwad East constituency.

Local Congress leaders have collected these details from the KPCC. The KPCC had fixed Rs 5,000 as the application fee, and Rs 2 lakh building fund contribution for each application.