Many Lingayats in race for Congress's Rajya Sabha tickets

Bengaluru: The race among Congress leaders for tickets for next month's elections to Rajya Sabha could prove most challenging with several prominent Lingayats set to vie for an entry into the House of Elders.    With the ruling party set to win three of the four seats as the total strength in the 225-member Assembly has whittled down to 217 (two legislators died while others quit their seats to join other parties), these leaders are keen to make it to Rajya Sabha as the numerically significant community lacks representation in the House.

The upshot: leaders who have started lobbying for tickets include president of All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, Shamanur Shivashankarappa, late CM Veerendra Patil's son, Kailash Patil, former ministers Rani Satish and Dr A B Malakareddy and former MLC Mr Allum Prabhu Patil. In addition, ten legislators have backed the candidature of C S Patil, a confidant of late CM Dharam Singh, and submitted a joint request to party president Rahul Gandhi during his recent tour of north Karnataka. 

Sources in the party said most of these aspirants are from north Karnataka and are confident of making it as the party could leverage their clout to garner the support of Lingayats in their home district as well as neighboring constituencies during Assembly elections. Besides, one BJP member, Basavaraj Patil Sedam,  set to retire soon, hails from Kalaburagi and therefore aspirants from Kalaburagi believe they stand a better chance of contesting the polls on Congress ticket.  The party's choice, however, could be Shamanur as such a move would not only placate him and others who opposed the government's decision to set up a committee to examine the demand for a separate religion tag for Lingayats but also secure their support.  

Sources said among minorities, many aspirants have surfaced with Mr K Rahman Khan set to complete his fourth term.  While Mr Khan has set out to seek a record fifth term or a ticket for his son Mansoor Ali Khan, former Union minister CM Ibrahim, minister Roshan Baig and former ministers Naseer Ahmed and A M Hindasgeri and former MLC Saleem Ahmed are other aspirants. Channa Reddy, a friend of the CM, who almost made it in 2016, could emerge as the dark horse.