Congress releases first list of 8 candidates for Karnataka assembly bypolls

Congress general secretary (in-charge of Central Election Committee) Mukul Wasnik released the list of eight candidates.

The byelections, scheduled for December 5, have been necessitated by the disqualification of sitting MLAs of Congress and JDS after they revolted, leading to the fall of their coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy in July.

Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar had disqualified 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs under the anti-defection law, which they have challenged in the Supreme Court.

#KarnatakaBypolls: @INCIndia announces candidates for 8 constituencies, approved by interim party president Sonia Gandhi. @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/Lp2kEsxPOt

— Ralph Alex Arakal (@ralpharakal) October 31, 2019

The two parties are going it alone in the bypolls. Ever since the collapse of the Kumaraswamy government, the Congress and JDS had blamed each other for the premature end of their coalition rule and their leaders had indicated there will be no alliance for the bypolls

In an interview to PTI on Tuesday, Gowda has said JD(S) would contest the bypolls alone and “certainly maintain equidistance” from the Congress and the BJP

The Congress list named candidates for six of the seats held by it and two by the JDS

According to the list, Bhimanna Naik will contest from Yellapur, B H Bannikod (Hirekerur) K B Koliwad (Ranebennur) M Anjanappa (Chikkaballapura), M Narayanaswamy (K R Puram), M Shivaraj (Mahalakshmi Layout) Padmavathi Suresh (Hosakote) and H P Manjunath will seek election from Hunsur

Mahalakshmi Layout and Hunsur were represented by JDS members

The Congress candidates for the legislative council polls are R M Kuberappa from Karnataka West Graduates constituency and Sharanappa Mattur from Karnataka North East Teachers segment

Though 17 constituencies have fallen vacant, election had not been notified for Rajarajeshwari Nagar and Maski seats as litigations connected to them are pending in court

The BJP and the JD(S) have not announced their candidate yet.