The Congress has ended its internal conflict by announcing K V Gowtham as its candidate for the Kolar Lok Sabha seat. Gowtham, who hails from Kolar and is currently the president of the Bengaluru Central district Congress committee, is the son of former Bengaluru Mayor K V Vijay Kumar. The decision to field Gowtham comes after five Congress legislators and Karnataka Minister for Food and Civil Supplies K H Muniyappa threatened to resign over the issue. Muniyappa had been advocating for his son-in-law Chikka Peddanna to be given the ticket, but the other legislators, including Minister M C Sudhakar, opposed this idea. The party ultimately chose Gowtham as a compromise candidate. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reserved the Kolar seat for its ally JD(S), with M Mallesh Babu being announced as their candidate.