Ex-CM Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar on Congress' first list for Karnataka polls

BENGALURU: Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, PCC president DK Shivakumar and former Union minister KH Muniyappa are among the 124 candidates announced by Congress on Saturday in its first list for the state assembly elections.

While Shivakumar will contest again from Kanakpura constituency, which he has won thrice, Siddaramaiah will be fielded from Varuna in Mysuru, currently represented by his son Yathindra.

The former CM has been nursing hopes of contesting from Kolar too. "The decision will be taken by the party high command," Siddaramaiah said. He fought from two seats in 2018 - Chamundeshwari (Mysuru) and Badami (Bagalkot) - but lost the Chamundeshwari seat. Sources said the party might agree to his request this time too. Muniyappa, a seven-time MP from Kolar, is seeking to enter the assembly for the first time in his three-decade-long political career. He has been fielded from Devanahalli, a reserved constituency. In Muniyappa's case, Congress has overlooked the 'one-family-one-ticket' rule, adopted during its plenary session in Jaipur last year, as his daughter Roopakala, who is an MLA from KGF, will contest again from the seat.

Other father-son teams contesting include 91-year-old Shamanuru Shivshankarappa and S S Mallikarjun from Davanagere South and Davanagere North, M Krishnappa and Priyakrishna from Vijayanagar and Govindrajanagar and father-daughter duo of R Ramalinga Reddy and Sowmya Reddy. As expected, the party has given tickets to 61 sitting MLAs while keeping the decision pending on a number of seats which have Congress legislators. Lingayats and Vokkaligas have got the major share in the first list with 30 and 21 tickets, respectively. Dalits have bagged 18 nominations, STs 10, Muslims 8 and Brahmins and Kurubas five each.