Bengaluru: The Congress has announced Radhakrishna Doddamani, son-in-law of the party’s national president Mallikarjuna Kharge, as its candidate from Kalaburagi — a reserved seat situated in the northeastern region of Karnataka — for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
His nomination is among those listed by the Congress Thursday for 24 seats in Karnataka. The party is yet to announce candidates for the remaining four seats — Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Chamarajanagar, and Ballari.
For Kharge, this will mark the end of his active political career that began in 1969 with his appointment as the city Congress president for Kalaburagi (then Gulbarga). His foray into electoral politics followed in 1972.
He has represented the Gurmitkal assembly constituency a record nine times and has been elected as member of parliament from Kalaburagi twice. He was referred to as “solillada saradara” (Kananda for leader who was never defeated), until he suffered his first ever setback in 2019 at the hands of his former aide, Umesh Jadhav of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He then entered the Rajya Sabha.
Speaking to ThePrint, N.M. Sudarshan, a Congress worker from Kalaburagi said that Radhakrishna, also referred to as ‘RK Sahebru’, is Kharge’s “backbone”.
“RK Sahebru has always remained behind the scenes but is the Dodd Sahebru’s (Kharge) backbone in the constituency,” he said.
Kharge’s son, Priyank, is a cabinet minister of rural development and panchayat raj, IT/BT in Karnataka.
In its latest list, the Congress has given tickets to the children of five sitting ministers as the party grappled to find suitable candidates in the state.
According to party sources, nearly five sitting ministers were asked to contest the Lok Sabha elections as the Congress did not have candidates. All five declined. Following this, the party chose to give tickets to the children of sitting ministers.
This includes Sowmya Reddy, former MLA and daughter of Transport minister Ramalinga Reddy, against BJP’s Tejasvi Surya from Bengaluru South.
Last year, Sowmya had lost the Jayanagar assembly elections by 16 votes amid allegations of vote rigging. People aware of the developments say that she was reluctant to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
The others include Priyanka Jarkiholi, daughter of Public Works department (PWD) minister Satish Jarkiholi, who will be the party’s candidate from Chikkodi; Mrunal Hebbalkar, son of Women and child development minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar, from Belagavi; Samyukta Patil, daughter of textiles minister Shivananda Patil, from Bagalkot; Sagar Khandre, son of forest minister Eshwar Khandre, from Bidar.
Additionally, Mansoor Ali Khan, son of former Union minister and senior Congress leader K. Rahman Khan, has been fielded from Bengaluru Central.
“Even though there are deserving candidates, the party is fielding ministers’ children, even those who are reluctant to contest,” said a national Congress leader, requesting anonymity.
The leader cited above added that there was little coordination between chief minister Siddaramaiah and his Deputy D.K. Shivakumar on distribution of tickets since both were more concerned about fielding those loyal to them and not those who had better chances of winning.
Jayaprakash Hegde, the former Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes and the person who submittedthe caste census report to Siddaramaiah government in February, has been named the party’s candidate from Udupi-Chikmagalur. Anjali Nimbalkar, the former MLA from Khanapur who lost her seat in 2023, is the Congress’s candidate from Uttara Kannada. In Davangere, Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of mines & geology minister S.S. Mallikarjun, is the party’s candidate.
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BJP’s troubles in Karnataka
The Congress has come out with a list after intense discussions over ticket distribution. The party, which came to power with a comfortable majority in the May 2023 assembly elections, is hoping to gain lost ground after it was reduced to just one win in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress had faced the last general elections with the Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), that has now allied with the BJP for the upcoming polls.
The BJP won an unprecedented 25 out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and is hoping to do even better this time around.
But infighting, dissent over ticket distribution and allegations that former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa has overlooked senior leaders, has cast a shadow on the party’s outlook.
K.S. Eshwarappa, a senior BJP leader, remains committed to fight the upcoming elections against Yediyurappa’s son in Shivamogga as an independent, while D.V. Sadananda Gowda wants to “cleanse” the party from within.
Basavaraj Bommai, the former CM and BJP’s candidate from Haveri, said that Eshwarappa had spoken emotionally.
“Soon the party national leaders would seriously talk to him. The party’s central parliamentary board meeting would be held where the second list of candidates would be released,” Bommai said in a statement Thursday.
The BJP has released its list of candidates for 20 seats and continues to deliberate on the remaining eight, including those it will give to the JD(S).
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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