Karnataka: Congress poll list to come soon

Bengaluru: As the Congress brains trust from Karnataka gathered at Karnataka Bhavan in Delhi to thrash out the list of probables who will make the cut for the do or die poll battle on May 12, few expected the Congress to finalise any list, at least not before the next 48 hours.

Vetting the list were chief minister Siddaramaiah and Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry, KPCC president Dr G Parameshwar and Karnataka election in-charge KC Venugopal who had cleared Belagavi and Mysuru districts, and had turned their attention to Kalaburgi and Bengaluru before heading back to the state Tuesday night.

As speculation raged on whether failing health would cut short the hopes of Davangere South MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa, Mandya MLA Ambareesh, Badami MLA BB Chimmannakatti and Hanagal MLA Manohar Tahasildar from getting tickets, the "release" of 131 candidates list on WhatsApp messaging app sent shockwaves across the state.

On the what's app list was the big shocker -  Congress heavyweight, M. Mallikarjun Kharge had been named for Chittapur Assembly constituency while the Shantinagar constituency in the IT capital was not going to N.A. Haris. There was complete consternation over the Mandya seat and several others. Until it sank in. It was fake. Congress leaders including Chief Minister Siddarmaiah quickly took to Twitter to clear the air, that the list which was in circulation among media persons was fake on Tuesday. The work of the BJP Fake news factory! Congress leaders on Twitter, ran hash tag campaign #FakeNewsFactory to deride BJP social media cell and accusing the latter of circulating fake list to create confusion among the Congress workers.

Chief minister Siddarmaiah's twitter said: “I am told a list of Congress candidates for Karnataka elections is under circulation. The AICC has not approved the list  of candidates yet. The ‘List’ under circulation is fake. It has been done to create confusion. Please don't patronise products of #FakeNewsFactory.”