The Congress party on Thursday released its third list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 in Karnataka. Among the 17 names, at least 11 are relatives of ministers, according to a report in ANI. The Congress committee, headed by the party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge, has yet to name candidates for five more constituencies -- Kolar, Chitradurga, Chikkaballapur, Chamarajanagar and Bellary.
From Bangalore South, the grand old party has fielded Sowmya Reddy, the daughter of Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy. From the Chikkodi seat, Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi’s daughter Priyanka Jarkiholi has been given a ticket, while Mrinal, the son of Women & Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar will contest elections from the Belgaum constituency on a Congress ticket.
The list also includes the names of Samyukta, the daughter of Agricultural Marketing Minister Shivanand Patil, from the Bagalkot seat, while Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre’s son Sagar Khandre will contest from Bidar.
From Gulbarga, the home turf of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, his son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani will contest polls on a Congress ticket.
The list has a few more candidates, who either come from political families or have already had a relative active in state or national politics. For example, Prabha Mallikarjun, a Congress candidate from the Davangere seat, is the wife of SS Mallikarjun, the mines & geology minister. She is also the daughter-in-law of senior MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa.
Former Rajya Sabha member and IIM Bangalore professor M V Rajeev Gowda has been fielded from the Bangalore North ticket. Mansoor Ali Khan, the son of former Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson K Rahman Khan, will contest on a Congress ticket from Bangalore Central.
From the Koppal seat, Rajshekar Hitnal, the brother of Raghavendra Hitnal, has been fielded by the grand old party. Raghavendra is a legislator in the Karnataka assembly and is believed to be close to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The Congress ticket to the Bengaluru Rural has gone to DK Suresh, the brother of Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, according to ANI.
The Congress party's latest list of Karnataka candidates has drawn flak from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has once again accused it of doing dynasty politics.
BJP spokesperson S Prakash said that the list exposes Congress' false claims of championing social justice, while only serving “justice for leaders' sons, daughters and relatives”.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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