Bengaluru, Mar 22 (PTI) After several rounds of discussion amid stiff competition for the party tickets, the Congress on Sunday announced Umesh Meti and Samarth Mallikarjun as the party candidates for Assembly bypolls to Bagalkot and Davangere South assembly constituencies respectively.
The bypolls were necessitated following the deaths of senior Congress MLAs H Y Meti (Bagalkot) and Shamanur Shivashankarappa (Davanagere South).
The Congress gave tickets to family members of the late legislators in both constituencies. While Umesh Meti is the son of H Y Meti, Samarth Mallikarjun is the grandson of Shamanur Shivashankarappa.
Samarth’s father, S S Mallikarjun, is a minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Cabinet and is in charge of Davangere district, while his mother, Prabha Mallikarjun, is a Member of Parliament from that region.
The Congress’s announcement of candidates has caused disgruntlement within the party, especially in the Davangere South constituency, where ticket aspirant Sadiq Pailwan announced he will contest as a rebel.
The BJP has already announced Veerabhadrayya Charantimath from Bagalkot and Srinivas T Dasakariyappa from Davangere South as candidates.
The last date for filing nominations is March 23, and elections will be held on April 9.
After the announcement of tickets, Deputy CM and state Congress chief D K Shivakumar claimed that all leaders agreed to face the election unitedly and work for the Congress candidate’s victory.
He said that he along with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other leaders will visit both constituencies for the filing of nominations on Monday.
AICC General Secretary in charge of Karnataka, Randeep Singh Surjewala, held a series of discussions in Bengaluru over the last two days regarding candidates for the two seats. These discussions included meetings with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, amid stiff competition between the aspirants.
The meetings proceeded even as ticket aspirants Samarth and Pailwan filed their nominations from the Davangere South Assembly constituencies on Friday, despite the party not having officially announced the candidates.
After filing his papers, Samarth said he filed nominations because it was an auspicious day and that he would file another set of papers after the party officially announces the ticket to him.
While veteran Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa’s family and supporters demanded that his grandson Samarth be fielded for the Davangere South seat, there was a strong demand from Muslims for the ticket, as the community has a significant presence in the segment.
Some factions within Congress that have considerable clout in the region opposed giving the ticket to the Shamanur family.
Pailwan, however, told reporters on Sunday that he will file another set of nominations as a “rebel candidate” on March 23.
He said, “As the Congress has finally decided not to identify minorities, the minorities along with AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes, and Dalits) communities will teach a lesson to the party in this election”.
Shivakumar, meanwhile, said there is nothing wrong with minority community aspirants asking for tickets, but everyone will abide by the party’s decision.
“Considering the development work done by Shivashankarappa for Davangere and the family’s loyalty to Congress, the party has made a decision considering all factors,” he said, adding that the party had compensated minorities earlier when such a situation arose.
Mallikarjun thanked the party for giving the ticket to his son and expressed confidence that everyone will work united for the victory of the Congress candidate.
“The decision was made by the party high command, everyone will abide by it. Our family has been loyal to the party… we will convince and take everyone together,” he said.
In Bagalkot, although there were indications that the ticket would go to Meti’s family, strong disagreement existed among his sons and daughters because each one intended to contest, party sources said.
Meanwhile, another strong aspirant from Congress, Govind Ballari, filed his nomination on Friday, expressing hope that the party would give him a ticket.
Umesh Meti told reporters on Sunday that everyone in the party and the family supports him and that there were no internal disagreements regarding his candidacy. “My father’s good works are with me,” he said.
In Bagalkot, Meti defeated BJP’s Charantimath by a margin of 5,878 votes and in Davangere South, Shivashankarappa defeated BJP’s B G Ajay Kumar by a margin of 27,888 votes, in the 2023 Assembly polls. PTI KSU KH
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