New Delhi: Due to the differences among members of the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) that met on Friday, the first list of Congress candidates for the May 12 assembly elections in Karnataka was delayed.

During the CEC meeting which met twice under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, the issue of the selection got deliberated for hours among the members, and at last, they had decided to meet again today.

“We will meet again tomorrow,” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had told reporters yesterday after the meeting.

Congress leader and member of the CEC Ambika Soni said that they had not finalized the list yet and more discussions are to take place today.

According to her, the final call would be taken by Karnataka leaders at the meeting again.

But the details provided by the sources say that the differences were apparent as each of the senior party leaders from the state was carrying their own separate lists of candidates for approval.

Some of the leaders raised many objections over the grant of party tickets to recently joined BJP and JD(S) rebel legislators, besides some Independents, the source said.

Some of the Karnataka party leaders feel that the tickets need to be given to the winning candidates and expressed apprehensions about the loyalty of those joining the Congress ahead of elections, they said.

The deliberations were also centred over the grant of party tickets to close family members of Chief Minister Siddharamaiah and state unit chief G Parameswara and some senior ministers.

The sources also said that the KPCC chief has asked for two tickets — one from the Koratagere constituency in Tumkur district, the seat that he had lost in 2013, and the other is the Pulakeshinagar constituency in Bengaluru, from where JD(S) MLA joined the Congress recently.

Even Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wants to contest from two seats and is demanding tickets for the same reason, one from his old Chamundeshwari constituency in Mysore district and the other Badami in Bagalkote district, where sitting Congress MLA BB Chimmanakatti was persuaded to vacate the seat, they said.

There is a great possibility of releasing the first list of around 180 candidates in a total of 224 constituencies in the state, the sources said.

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