Intense lobbying on in Cong as race for 2 MLC seats hots up

Bengaluru: There is a growing clamor in a section of the Congress to pick up grassroots level workers for the Legislative Council (MLC) elections to seven seats on June 29 while 52 aspirants have so far applied for the two seats the party is likely to win.

The elections to the seats will take place following the retirement of Naseer Ahmed, Jayamma, M C Venugopal, N S Bose Raju, H M Revanna, T A Sharavana, and D U Mallikarjuna.

The Congress is likely to win two seats, while its rival parties the BJP may get four seats and the JD(S) one as these members will be elected by the MLAs.

The ruling BJP has 116 members excluding Speaker, Congress has 68 and the JD(S) has 34 members in the assembly.

The Congress workers have cited examples of the recent selection of two dark horses Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti as Rajya Sabha candidates by the BJP leadership.

“BJP has shown the way how to reward the committed workers.The same should be followed in our party as well,” a ticket aspirant told PTI speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Intense lobbying has started in the Congress as the race hots up.

“Competition is indeed tough.So far 52 people have applied for the two seats the party is likely to win,” a party insider told PTI.

The top contenders, according to party sources, are Ivan D”Souza, Saleem Ahmed, Nazeer Ahmed, Nivedith Alva, M R Sitharam, H M Revanna, M C Venugopal, V S Ugrappa, Mohan Babu, Mudda Hanumegowda, Rajeev Gowda, Nataraj Gowda, Kavitha Reddy and Dr Nagalakshmi Chowdhary.

The notification has already been issued for the election as per the schedule and the last date of filing nomination is June 18