Bangalore: Congress first list - Moily's name missing, party fields other sitting MPs

Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Mar 9: Out of the first nation-wide list of candidates chosen to fight the coming Lok Sabha election on Congress symbol released by the party on Saturday March 8, 14 represent constituencies in Karnataka.  Surprisingly, the name of union minister, Veerappa Moily, a sitting MP from Chikkaballapur, does not figure in the list.

As per the list, eight sitting Lok Sabha members from the state have been given a chance to fight this election again. The other six are new faces. The party has withheld announcement of its candidates from 14 constituencies in Karnataka. It is said that out of these, there is tussle between different aspirants in six constituencies, while the party wants to field three state ministers from other constituencies.

The candidates who have got the party’s nod are, Mallikarjun Kharge (Gulbarga), Dharam Singh (Bidar), Jayaprakash Hegde (Udupi-Chikmagalur), Divyaspandana Ramya (Mandya), H Vishwanath (Mysore), R Dhruvanarayan (Chamarajanagar), D K Suresh (Bangalore Rural), Nandan Nilekani (Bangalore South), Prakash Rathod (Bijapur), A Manju (Hassan), S P Muddahanume Gowda (Tumkur), S S Mallikarjun (Davanagere), N Y Hanumantappa (Bellary), and K H Muniyappa (Kolar).

The party is yet to finalize its candidates for Chikkaballapur, Bagalkot, Bangalore Central, Belgaum, Chikkodi, Chitradurga, Haveri, Dharwad, Koppal, Richur, Shimoga, and Karwar constituencies.  It is said that the party is desirous of fielding ministers, Prakash Hukkeri, from Chikkodi constituency, H Anjaneya from Chitradurga, and either speaker, Kagodu Timmappa or minister, Kimmane Ratnakar, from Shimoga.

Congress party had clarified in the past that all the sitting MPs will get tickets this time. However, there is no plausible reason why the party has chosen to withhold the name of union minister, Veerappa Moily, while bringing out the list. Moily had suffered a setback in the form of rejection of the nomination filed by his son, Harsha Moily, for the internal election being held to decide on the party candidate from Dakshina Kannada constituency.