Sonia, Rahul to campaign in Karnataka, 2nd list out

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi will campaign in Karnataka for the May 5 assembly polls, the state unit said today.

The Congress high command will be out in strength soon to campaign for the assembly elections in Karnataka.

HT Image

On Sunday, as the party announced its second list of candidates for the May 5 polls, it also announced a campaign schedule for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party chief Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

The high powered campaign will begin from April 23 and will be on till May 2.

Sonia would be visiting Chikmagalur, Gulbarga, Belgaum, Mysore, Mangalore and Bangalore for three days. Rahul Gandhi would be participating in programmes at Bellary, Raichur , Bijapur, Kolar, Tumkur, Haveri, Mandya, Hasan and Shimoga districts for three days.

Singh will be participating at rallies in Hubli and Bangalore.

The second list of 40 candidates announced, meanwhile, contains the names of children of Union minister Mallikarjuna Kharge and former CM N Dharam Singh. Despite huge protests against giving tickets to relatives of party leaders, Priyanka Kharge and Ajay Singh have managed to get ticket from Chittapur and Jevargi constituencies. BK Shivaram, elder brother of party general secretary BK Hariprasad has got a ticket from Malleshwar. But Union minister KH Muniappa’s daughter Rupa Shashidhar was given a go by.

Nine names are expected to be announced in the third list.