Congress releases first list of 8 candidates for Karna

The Congress on Thursday released its first list of eight candidates for the coming byelections to 15 Karnataka assembly constituencies, stealing a march over erstwhile coalition partner JDS and ruling BJP.

The party also named its candidates for two legislative council seats in the state.

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.

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.