Bengaluru, March 27 Congress ticket aspirant Sadiq Pailwan, who was contesting in the Davanagere South Assembly by-election, announced on Friday that he was "retiring" from the contest and would work for the party and its official candidate.
The Davanagere South constituency, along with the Bagalkot Assembly constituency, will go to by-elections on April 9. These elections were necessitated following the deaths of senior Congress MLAs Shamanur Shivashankarappa and H Y Meti, respectively.
Congress has fielded Samarth Mallikarjun, the grandson of Shamanur Shivashankarappa, from Davanagere South. His father, S S Mallikarjun, is a minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Cabinet and is in charge of the Davanagere district, while his mother, Prabha Mallikarjun, is a Member of Parliament from that region.
With Congress not giving a ticket to any of the Muslim aspirants, Pailwan, who had already filed his nominations even before the party announced its candidates, had earlier asserted that he would contest.
There was a strong demand from the Muslim community for the Davanagere South Congress ticket, as the community has a significant presence in the constituency. Some factions within Congress had opposed giving the ticket to the Shamanur family.
Speaking to reporters in the presence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, and AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala, Pailwan said that Congress was a family, and the seniors in the party had called him, spoken to him, and ensured that he returns to his family.
He said that the minorities and other communities will "work shoulder to shoulder" to ensure the victory of the party's candidates by a large margin.
Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress chief, said that Pailwan had not put any conditions to retire from the contest, and the party had not made any assurances.
"He will work to defeat the BJP. Congress will protect his interests...he had filed his nomination and couldn't withdraw it on time. Now he has announced his retirement from the contest. I compliment him," he said.
Rejecting reports that Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan, who had demanded a ticket for a Muslim candidate in Davanagere, was upset and not participating in campaigning, Shivakumar said, "Khan is in Kerala working on party matters for the Assembly polls there. He is in touch with me."
Siddaramaiah said that he had entrusted Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad and MLC Saleem Ahmed with the responsibility to convince Pailwan to retire from the contest.
Calling Pailwan a loyal Congress worker, Siddaramaiah said, "There was nothing wrong with Pailwan having an aspiration, as there was a considerable Muslim population there. But the party followed the policy of giving tickets to the deceased MLA's family and chose Samarth as the candidate."
According to Congress sources, there was some worry, with Pailwan in the fray and displeasure within the minority community over not giving them the ticket; hence, leadership made efforts to convince everyone and ensure the victory of the party candidate.
The BJP has fielded Srinivas T Dasakariyappa for Davanagere South.