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Incharge AICC General Secretray Randeep Surjewala held back to back meetings over the past two days including with minority leaders in order to finalise party tickekts for two by elections in Karnataka.
Karnataka Congress Meeting
Bengalore: The ruling Cingress on Sunday decided to field Samarth Mallikharjun from Davanagere South and Umesh Meti from Bagalkot. Both the by-elections were necessitated due to death of the sitting MLAs belonging to the Congress. It was also decided to allot both the seats to the family members of deceased leaders.
Even as the filings of nominations ends on Monday, Congress General Secretray Surjewala was busy until the last minute holding discussions with all the stake holders. Though for the Bagalkot seat there was intense pressure from four contenders from within the family, it was for the Davanagere South seat, there was pressure from outside , particularly from minority community , since there were 85,000 Muslim votes from that constituency.
Karanataka Minister Zameer threatened to resign, Randeep Surjewala Engages in Damage Control
The 27 year old Samarth Mallikharjun, is the grand son of lare Shamanur Shivshankarappa. "Shamanur family " is highly politicaly influential. The candidate's father is a present state Minister S S Mallikharjun and mother is an MP. So, for Samarth, it is the third generation family to enter electoral politics. This family was loyal to late prime minister Indira gandhi and they are richest family in the state, with various business interests.
Several minority leaders met Congress high command and argued that growing minority vote base in the constituency and pressed for muslim face to be fielded. State Minister Zameer reportedly issued a warning and went to the extent of resigning from the cabinet. However, Surjewala learnt to convinced and managed them to drop out of the race and after the consultations with party chief Mallikharjun Kharge they have cleared Samarth Mallikharjun.
BJP Announces Candidates for Karnataka Legislative Council Biennial Elections; Check LIST here
The bye-polls to the Karnataka assembly are expected to witness a keen contest, with the Congress aiming to retain its foothold even as internal fault lines briefly surfaced during the ticket selection process.
