Council polls: Motamma gets nod

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The Congress on Thursday announced a list of four candidates for the forthcoming Legislative Council polls from the Legislative Assembly constituency, which includes Opposition leader in the Council Ms Motamma.

The others who have emerged as the lucky four are Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi, K Govindaraju and M.R. Seetharam. KPCC chief Dr G. Parameshwar, who announced the list approved by AICC president Sonia Gandhi, said: “We have put up four candidates and we hope our fourth candidate gets the conscience vote of members from other parties and Independent MLAs.”

Over the last few days, the names of 95 probables, including heavyweights like B.L. Shankar, Rani Satish, K.C. Kondaiah, V.S. Ugrappa and C.M. Ibrahim, have been doing the rounds for the four seats. There was a flurry of activity with senior leaders rushing to Delhi to back their candidates.

The final list left several aspirants heartbroken including leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah who was reportedly disappointed as his close associate and former Union minister C.M. Ibrahim did not make it.

Candidates known to be confidantes of external affairs minister S.M. Krishna and KPCC chief Parameshwar seem to have scored over others in the rush to make it to the list.

Opposition leader in the council Motamma, finally made it to the list though there were reports that she may not as she had the option of contesting the Assembly polls from Mudigere.

While Mr Saradagi’s proximity to a top Congress functionary worked in his favour, Mr Govindaraju, president of Karnataka Olympic Association, reportedly had the backing of Mr Krishna and Dr Parameshwar.

Another reason could be the fact that he belongs to the Kunchatiga community, a sub-sect of the Vokkaligas.