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The delay by the Congress in announcing its candidate for the Dharwad, Haveri and Canara (Uttara Kannada) Lok Sabha seats has left the party workers in the constituencies in a quandary. While the BJP workers have finished with their first round of meetings with the voters in the constituencies, the Congress cadre is left wondering how to proceed.
Manjunath Kunnur who represented Dharwad South from 2004 as the BJP nominee had shifted loyalties to Congress after he voted in favour of the UPA during the vote of confidence and he was Congress candidate from Dharwad constituency in 2009. However, he failed to enter the Parliament as BJP’s Prahlad Joshi won with a huge margin of 135,663 votes. In 2004 Joshi had won by a margin of 83,078 votes.
Kunnur is again vying for the ticket and others in the race are former minister A M Hindasgeri, former MP I G Sanadi, his son Shakir, former Shiggaon MLA Ajjampeer Khadri, physician Mahesh Nalwad, Lohit Naiker, son of former MP D K Naiker and MLA Vinay Kulkarni.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is said to be batting for C M Ibrahim’s candidature from Dharwad.
The decision on a candidate from Dharwad will largely depend on who gets ticket for Haveri. If a Muslim is fielded in Haveri, then it will be a non-Muslim, possibly a Lingayat in Dharwad. In that case, the race will be between Kunnur and Nalwad. Though Vinay Kulkarni is also a Lingayat, he is said to be unwilling to contest.
Lohit Naiker belongs to the Kuruba community. Since Basavaraj Hintal who is also a Kuruba has been given ticket from Koppal, Lohit’s chances seem to be bleak.
In Uttara Kannada, higher education minister R V Deshpande and Rajasthan governor Margaret Alva are said to be vying for the seat for their sons Prasad and Nivedit respectively. Meanwhile, AICC general secretary B K Hariprasad has thrown his hat. The seat is held by BJP’s Anantkumar Hegde.
The Haveri constituency has also been contentious with RDPR minister H K Patil batting for his cousin, former Gadag MLA D R Patil.
Haveri is considered a Muslim dominated constituency and Salim Ahmed is staked his claim. Salim had contested from the same constituency in 2009 and lost to BJP’s Shivakumar Udasi.
Knowing the tendency of Congress high command of changing candidates at the last moment, the aspirants are leaving no stone unturned to get the ticket.
The delay in announcing the candidates has created confusion among party workers.
“Let anybody be given the ticket. The high command should announce the name at the earliest so that we can start preparations. Without knowing who will be the candidate, how can we go ahead?” asked Vasant Arkachar who has been in Congress for last two decades.
For the loyal Congressmen dreaming of recapturing the three constituencies which were the Congress bastion for four decades, the uncertainty over the party’s candidate in each election has become a major setback.
