Congress continues ‘parivarvaad’, gives tickets to late MLAs families for Karnataka bypolls | Bengaluru News
BENGALURU: The Congress party decided to continue with its legacy of family oriented politics in Karnataka with the announcement of Samarth Mallikarjun for Davangere and Umesh Meyti for Bagalkot byelections scheduled for April 9. Both the byelections were necessitated on account of the demise of party senior leaders Shamanur Shivashankarappa and H Y Meyti.After days of “negotiations” with the Muslim community seeking a ticket from Davangere south, which has a 40 per cent voting population in the segment, it was decided to continue with the Congress “precedence” of giving a ticket to the family member of the legislator who passed away and necessitated the bypoll.
“With the party having already decided to give a ticket to Meyti family in Bagalkot, it was heatedly debated at the meeting late yesterday night with Mallikarjun demanding the ticket for his family as his father Shivashankarappa was the president of the All India Veershaiva Linagayat Mahasabha (AIVM) and his legacy cannot be insulted. As a result, it was decided to accord the ticket to his son, Samarth,” said a senior leader who was present at the meeting.Questions were asked about Mallikarjun seeking a ticket for his son, even as his wife was a sitting MP from Davangere by winning the 2024 parliamentary elections.To this Mallikarjun dismissed the claims and said his family– be it him or his late father– had not asked for the ticket and was forced upon them by the party leadership including chief minister Siddaramaiah, deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar and Karnataka in-charge AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala.“Finally, it was agreed that the ticket will be given to Samarth as the party does not want to antagonise the larger Lingayat community but will be restricted to only the byelections with a fresh decision to be taken for the 2028 assembly elections,” said the leaders.Meanwhile, in Bagalkot, the Congress also acceded to the demand of the family to give the ticket to Umesh.Speaking to the media, KPCC president and DCM Shivakumar said: “We have followed the tradition of giving the tickets to the family members of the late legislators by giving the tickets to Umesh Meyti and Samarth Mallikarjun. We have full confidence of winning the two by-elections with leaders assuring of working together to ensure the victory.”On being asked about the Muslim community demand for the seat, Shivakumar said there was nothing wrong in the community demanding the ticket.“In Bagalkot itself we had considerable lobbying within the Meyti family with all the four children asking for it. While I wanted to give the ticket to the eldest son, Mallikarjun, local leaders and our senior leadership believed in giving it to Umesh. Even the women in the family demanded the ticket. When such is the situation within a family, there is bound to be demands from outside as well. However, the party has decided with regard to the tickets being given to the said candidates and none will oppose it,” said Shivakumar.On whether a trade-off was in place for the Muslims, Shivakumar said Abdul Jabbar, the long time aspiring candidate for the Davangere seat was already a three time MLC and is continuing in the post.“We trade-off when the time is right and when it is required,” he said.The KPCC president said he will be travelling to both the constituencies on Monday to submit the nomination papers with the B Forms with CM Siddaramaiah busy in preparing the reply on the budget 2026-27 scheduled on Wednesday, March 25.
