Congress releases names for 3 crucial seats

Bengaluru: With five days to go before the last date for filing nominations on Tuesday, the Congress has finally released its candidates for three out of the seven pending seats clearing  N.A. Haris for the prestigious Shantinagar seat, while putting Badami on hold, it has kept alive the controversy that is unlikely to die down.

While it is an open secret that chief minister Siddaramaiah is bent on standing from two seats — Chamundeshwari and Badami in North Karnataka — he is being discouraged from doing so by diehard Congressmen, whom the CM believes do not have his best interests at heart.

Adding fuel to the fire of a rift between Mr Siddaramaiah and the party bosses are reports of a late night closed door meeting on April 18 that the chief minister reportedly held with the AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal, KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar and Congress campaign committee chairman D.K. Shivakumar in Mysuru.

Sources close to the developments have told this newspaper that the CM reportedly made it clear to Mr. Venugopal that he would contest the Assembly elections from Badami as his second constituency.

On Wednesday night Siddaramaiah reportedly reiterated his demand before three Congress leaders.

The party heavily depends on Siddaramaiah as their star campaigner. In fact, in the May 12 elections he is pitted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a ‘do-or-die’ battle for Karnataka.