Congress hunting for ‘weighty’ candidate for Vijayanagar, may field Ghorpade

Ballari: With the BJP deciding to field disqualified legislator, B.S. Anand Singh for the Vijayanagar (Hosapete) bypoll, the Congress is hunting for a 'weighty' candidate to take him on and could field KPCC general secretary Venkat Rao Ghorpade from the constituency, according to sources.

While there are a half a dozen contenders for its ticket, the Congress is likely to announce Mr Ghorpade's candidature shortly, they reveal. Former Congress legislator, H R Gaviyappa, who joined the BJP and took on Mr Singh in Vijayanagar during the 2018 assembly poll, was expected to return to the party to contest against him again this by-poll, but he appears to have been mollified and retained by the saffron party.

"Gaviyappa was hoping to get a BJP ticket in the by-poll till Wednesday, but decided not to contest soon after the Supreme Court gave its verdict permitting the disqualified legislators to contest the by-polls,” said a source. With the BJP government pacifying Mr Gaviyappa by appointing him chairman of the Small Scale Industries Development Corporation, the Congress has decided to picked Mr Ghorpade, who is the younger brother of former minister and scion of the Sandur princely state, the late M Y Ghorpade for Vijaynagar.

But according to reliable sources Mr Ghorpade himself is reluctant to contest the bypoll and is being pressured by some senior Congress leaders to accept its offer.

As president of the Ballari Zilla Parishad Mr Ghorpade had unsuccessfully contested from Sandur during the 2004 assembly poll and was former vice chairman of the Karnataka State Decentralised Planning and Development Committee.

Meanwhile, local leaders Imam Niyazi, KSL Swamy, and K Pampapathi continue to lobby for the Congress ticket.