Mangalore: There are reports that the  Congress has at least 25 candidates lined up to secure a ticket from the prestigious Puttur constituency.  The number of aspirants has increased particularly after a group of Muslim leaders recently convened a press meet in Mangalore and demanded at least two assembly seats for Muslim candidates.

Already the Congress has influential MLAs in four constituencies and they are very likely to be given tickets from the same constituencies. However, in case of Puttur, the candidate who contested from here last time. Bondala Jagannath Shetty is no more and this time the party is in search of a new candidate for this prestigious constituency from where Bondala  lost just by  a margin  of  1255 votes.

It has been gathered that Bharath Mundodi may be the likely choice considering that he is a vokkaliga, in the event f the BJP fielding DV Sadananda Gowda who has  already said he will think in terms of contesting from Puttur if the party decides to field him.