Congress announces K V Gowtham as its Kolar Lok Sabha candidate

Bengaluru: The Congress on Saturday named K V Gowtham as its Kolar Lok Sabha candidate, ending imbroglio within the party over the issue.

Gowtham is the Bengaluru Central District Congress committee president.

Hailing from Kolar, Gowtham is the son of former Bengaluru Mayor K V Vijay Kumar.

Gowtham's candidature was in the offing ever since the discontent started brewing in the Kolar unit with five Congress legislators from the district and Karnataka Minister for Food and Civil Supplies K H Muniyappa threatening to resign over the issue.

While Muniyappa wanted his son-in-law Chikka Peddanna to be fielded from Kolar and lobbied hard for him, the five legislators including minister M C Sudhakar threatened to resign en masse if Peddanna was given a ticket.

One more legislator said he would wait for the outcome before taking the 'final call'.

Ignoring the adamant stand of Muniyappa, the party chose Gowtham as its candidate for the Kolar seat.

The BJP reserved the Kolar seat for its ally JD(S), which has declared M Mallesh Babu as its candidate.