Bengaluru: The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee’s (KPCC) election committee on Wednesday decided to split into four groups to screen potential candidates for 224 seats for the upcoming assembly polls due later this year.
The teams, headed by senior leaders, will visit four divisions of the state—south, coastal, Mumbai-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka—Dinesh Gundu Rao, working president of the KPCC said. The election committee met on Wednesday to discuss key issues including candidate selection and strategies.
In the 2018 Karnataka polls, the Congress will be fighting to stall the BJP’s impressive run in other state elections. All parties are taking steps to ensure there is a wide representation of castes and communities in their respective candidate selection.
The Congress has received at least 1.200 applications for 224 seats, The Hindu reported on 9 March.
The BJP and Congress are yet to release their candidate list while JD(S) has released a list of 126 names for various constituencies including that of former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who will be contesting from Ramanagara constituency.
Rao said the sub-committees will be looking mainly at two parameters. “One will be social justice, caste, religion and equitable representation and the second will be the best candidate,” Rao said. The committee will shortlist about 2-3 candidates per constituency and the same will be discussed on 26 March, when the state election committee meets again. The shortlisted names will be then sent to the central committee who will carry out another round of screening and a final decision will be taken by the month end, Rao added.