Karnataka assembly elections: Congress looks to maximum caste equation through distribution of tickets

BENGALURU: Congress, which has announced 165 candidates so far for the 224 assembly seats, has allocated 30 tickets to members from the Lingayat community and 24 to Vokkaligas, the two dominant castes in the state.
However, the party is still struggling to placate Veerashaiva-Lingayats, who are seeking a higher allocation of tickets for their members.

Request letters and memoranda from various Lingayat lobbies have put pressure on the Congress, which has yet to announce candidates for 58 seats.

In 2018, at the height of the Lingayat agitation for a separate religion, which was backed by members of the Congress, the grand old party had devoted 42 seats to members from the community. Now, with the Panchamasali Lingayat agitation, the Lingayat community is hopeful that these numbers will increase, though it seems unlikely.
Speaking to TOI, Shamanur Shivashankarappa, the Davangere South Congress candidate and president of All India Veerashaiva Lingayat Mahasabha (AIVM), said the community has been demanding a higher share of tickets for its members, but it is unlikely that Congress will be able to stretch itself beyond a certain number.

"We have already got 30 seats for our community and it is unlikely that we can expect more than 11 or 12 more out of the remaining 58," Shivashankarappa said.
Meanwhile, amid the outcry over internal reservations, Congress has allocated sizable number of seats to Touchables within the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, with four seats to SC (Lambani) and three to SC (Bhovi).
Apart from that, another 12 seats have been allocated by the party for SC (Right) and four for SC (Left).