Congress names Gowtham as Kolar candidate

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Congress on Saturday announced a compromise candidate for the Kolar Lok Sabha seat in KV Gowtham.

The party had already disclosed 27 candidates for 28 segments in the state and this announcement constitutes the last name. Gowtham is the current Bengaluru Central district Congress committee president.

He is also the son of former Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Mayor KV Vijay Kumar.

Although Gowtham is based in Bengaluru, he has roots in Kolar district. A crisis had been brewing in the state Congress as five lawmakers including a minister had threatened to quit on Wednesday as KG Chikkapeddanna had been given the Kolar ticket initially.

Chikkapeddanna is the son-in-law of Food and Civil Supplies Minister KH Muniyappa.

The minister had been insistent that his kin be given a ticket since six children of ministers had secured candidacy for the upcoming general elections.

Higher Education Minister MC Sudhakar, Kolar MLA Kothur Manjunath, Malur MLA KY Nanjegowda, MLCs Anil Kumar and Naseer Ahmed had threatened to quit over Chikkapeddanna getting the ticket.

However, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar had mollified them.

Dalit internal dynamics at play

Muniyappa and his kin come from the ritually left hand Dalit caste, which refers to Madigas and their sub-castes. His daughter Roopakala Sashidhar is the Congress MLA from Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in the same district.

Another faction in the Congress had been demanding a ticket for a person from the ritually right hand Dalit caste, referring to Holeyas and their sub-castes.

The faction led by Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar had suggested the name of CM Muniyappa. However, both factions have been disregarded and Gowtham has emerged as an alternative.

Former Rajya Sabha MP L Hanumanthaiah, who belongs to the ritually left handed Dalit caste, also loses out in this tug of war as he had been a frontrunner for the Kolar ticket initially.

JD(S) to contest seat

JD(S) will contest from Kolar in a seat sharing arrangement with allies BJP. On Friday, JD(S) had announced a former party MLA from Bangarpet in the district Mallesh Babu as their candidate from Kolar on Friday.

There is a caste calculus behind this as well because Babu comes from the Bhovi caste.

The Kolar seat is reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the SC list in Karnataka includes scores of “touchable” nomadic castes.

Parties on either side are trying to play Dalit left, right and nomadic castes against each other.