The Davangere seat was split into North and South constituencies in the recent delimitation exercise. While senior Congress leader and KPCC treasurer Shamanur Shivshankarappa filed his nomination from Davangere South, his son Mallikarjun wanted to file his nomination from the North constituency. A senior Congress leader from Davangere said, “The Congress high command had decided to issue one ticket per family and also wanted significant Muslim representation this time, and officially gave the “B” form to Saifullah.”

However, Davangere District Congress general secretary Shivshankar said, “The North constituency has few Muslim voters, just around 18,000, while the South has around 50,000.”

Mallikarjun’s supporters believe he would make a better candidate in the North and fought for his nomination.