Moily to re-contest from Karnataka's Chikkaballapur

The Congress Thursday re-nominated Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M. Veerappa Moily to contest the Chikkaballapur parliamentary constituency in the April 17 general elections in Karnataka.

Moily's name figured in the second list of candidates the party's central election committee released in New Delhi late Thursday along with that of nine other nominees for the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies across the state, which has 28 parliamentary seats.

Moily, who hails from the coastal area in the state, won Chikkaballapur seat in the 2009.

The party preferred Rizwan Arshad to veteran leader and former union minister C.K. Jaffer Shariff to contest the Bangalore Central constituency.

State Sugar and Small Scale Industries Minister Prakash B. Hukkeri has been named to contest Chikkodi in the northern region of the state though he was not keen to give up his legislative assembly seat.

The seven other candidates are Lakshmi Hebbalkar from Belgaum, Ajay Kumar Sarnaik from Bagalkot, B.V. Naik from Raichur (reserved), Basavaraj Hitnal from Koppal, Manjunath Bhandary from Shimoga, Janardana Poojary from Dakshina Kannada and Chandrappa from Chitradurga (reserved).

In the first list released March 8, the party announced names for 14 seats.

Poojary won from primary Sunday, while C. Narayanaswamy won from primary held Thursday to contest the Bangalore North seat.