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However, the party was still unable to give clarity on opposition leader Siddaramaiah getting a second seat in Kolar.
As per the party sources, the Congress’s central election committee (CEC) has given party leader and AICC member Rahul Gandhi the responsibility of deciding the second seat for Siddaramaiah.
In fact, the party on Thursday afternoon even scheduled an extension of the CEC meeting to decide on the Kolar seat and 19 others, where there is confusion on candidatures.
“The remaining 40-odd seats will be decided only after the BJP list is announced,” said a Congress functionary.
While Kolar seat maybe undecided, the party accorded ticket to Bheemsen Chimmannakatti from Siddaramaiah’s current segment of Badami.
Chimmanakatti had stepped aside for Siddaramaiah to contest in 2018, as secondary constituency along with Chamundeshwari, where the former CM had lost to JD(S) by a huge margin.
The Congress list included names of three defecting leaders from BJP and JD(S). While former Gubbi JD(S) MLA S R Srinivas was given the same constituency by the Congress, BJP MLC Baburao Chinchansur was allotted the Gurmitkal segment. Chinchansur was elected on Congress ticket from Gurmitkal twice and from Chittapur three times.
Meanwhile, ‘ghar wapsi’ of another BJP MLA N Y Gopalkrishna was concluded with him getting the Congress ticket from Molkalmuru, from where he had won on party ticket in 2013. Gopalkrishna had won from Kudligi on BJP ticket in 2018.
Them apart, the party also gave ticket to Vijay Dharam Singh, the elder son of former CM Dharam Singh, from Basavakalyan.
Vijay is the brother of incumbent Congress Jevargi MLA Ajay Dharam Singh.
Among other big names who were given tickets are Vinay Kulkarni, who is an accused in a murder case, and former Congress minister H Y Meti, who was forced to resign following a sex scandal in 2016.
Along with them, the party also announced the name of former social welfare minister H Anjaneya from Holalkere, former labour minister and mining baron Santosh Lad from Kalghatgi and former education minister Kimmane Ratnakar from Thirthahalli.
The party has also tried to maintain parity in terms of caste based allocations, with 11 candidates each from the dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities and three each from the Kuruba and Muslim communities. The party also announced tickets for four Scheduled Caste segments, with two each to the SC (Left) and SC (Right), and two more to the scheduled tribe (ST) communities. Communities, including Marathas, Edigas and Rajputs have been accorded one seat each.
In Melukote, Congress has decided to back the Sarvodaya Karnataka Party (SKP) with Darshan Puttanna, son of former MLA K Puttanaiah. Darshan is likely to be in a direct fight with the JD(S) incumbent C S Puttaraju for the second consecutive time with the BJP also likely to back the US-returned techie.
