Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said issuing tickets to children and relatives of ministers was not dynastic politics but acknowledgment of the recommendations of voters.

In its second list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party on March 21 announced it would field the son-in-law of state president M Mallikarjun Kharge and the children of five Karnataka ministers.

“Yes, we have given it. We have given it to the person recommended by the people of the constituency. This is not dynastic politics but recognition of the people’s opinion,” Siddaramaiah told reporters.

He was responding to a query about 10 family members and relatives of Karnataka ministers being given tickets to represent the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.

Mallikarjun Kharge’s son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani will contest from Gulbarga (Kalaaburagi) Lok Sabha constituency.

Priyanka Jarkiholi, daughter of Public Welfare Minister Satish Jarkiholi, will fight from Chikodi.

Sowmya Reddy, daughter of Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, will fight against Tejasvi Surya, the sitting BJP MP from Bengaluru South .

Samyukta S Patil, daughter of Textile Minister Shivanand Patil from Bagalkot, Mrinal Hebbalkar, son of Women and Child Welfare Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar from Belgaum (Belagavi) and Sagar Khandre, son of Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre from Bidar.

Mansoor Ali Khan, son of former Rajya Sabha deputy chairman K Rahman Khan, has been fielded from Bengaluru Central, Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of minister SS Mallikarjun ) joined the battle from Davangere.

The chief minister said the party will announce the list of candidates for the remaining four constituencies in Karnataka within a day or two.

On the issue of “thorny issues” faced by the party in the Chamarajanagar Lok Sabha constituency, the chief minister said: “We neither have any ‘thorny issues’ nor any conflict. As we don’t want to announce the list in one go, we will do it later.” Siddaramaiah is confident that the Congress will win at least 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

He said he would not lie like the BJP, which claimed to win all 28 seats in Karnataka but according to him, it was impossible.

Asked whether the alliance between the BJP and JD(S) would create problems for the Congress, Siddaramaiah said, “That (alliance) will be good for us.” When asked to elaborate on what the alliance would be When it comes to serving Congress, he said certain secrets cannot be revealed.

The chief minister said he was confident that the five guarantees introduced by the government would definitely help the party win the elections.

“We have spent Rs 36,000 crore this year. For the next fiscal, we will earmark Rs 52,900 crore. We will not lie like the BJP. We will deliver on our promises,” Siddaramaiah said.

The chief minister pointed out that his party depends on its achievements in the elections and said people trust his government unlike the BJP which lies and never fulfills its promises.

“In the 2018 Assembly elections, the BJP made 600 promises but not even 10% of them were fulfilled. Did Prime Minister Narendra Modi give you Rs 15 lakh? Two crores were created The employment opportunities doubled the income of farmers and brought ‘Achche’ ding. Why do people believe him?” he said.

Karnataka has 28 Lok Sabha seats and the state will go to polls in two phases – April 26 and May 7.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)