Congress releases candidate list for Karnataka Legislative Council elections; check names here

Bengaluru, Nov 22: The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee on Monday announced the names of the candidates for the forthcoming Karnataka Legislative Council elections scheduled to be held on December 10.

Congress Candidate List for MLC Elections 2021
Shivananda Patil Martur- Gulbarga, Channaraja Basavaraja Hottiholi-Belagavi, Bhimanna Naik-Uttara Kannada, Saleem Ahmed (KPCC Working President)-Hubli Dharwad Gadag Haveri, Sarana Gouda Patil-Raichur, B Somashekar-Chitradurga, R Prasanna Kumar- Shimoga, Manjunath Bhandari- Dakshina Kannada, Gayatri Shantegowda- Chikmagalur. Also among the candidates are M Shankar- Hassan, R Rajendra-Tumkur, M G Gooli Gowda-Mandya, S Ravi-Bangalore Rural, Mantar Gowda-Kodag, D Thimmaiah-Mysore Chamarajamahar, K C Kondaiah-Bellary have got tickets.

Surprisingly, senior party leader and Leader of the Opposition in the legislative council SR Patil, who had represented the Bijapur local authorities seat and is due to retire in January, has not been given a ticket. He has been replaced by Sunil Gowda Patil.

State Congress President D K Shivakumar said that the candidates were selected after much discussion and keeping the opposite candidates in mind. He said, "Opportunity has been given to active workers of the party. We are expecting to win the maximum number of seats."

He said that the party took the decision to give tickets to new faces based on the inputs given by the local leaders. When asked about SR Patil missing ticket, Shivakumar said, "Certain decisions have happened at the leadership level regarding senior leaders. There is no question of leaving him... the party has a different strategy for him."

The Congress leader claimed that the party will announce the candidates for Bidar, Bangalore and Kolar constituencies soon. It has to be noted that the BJP has already announced its candidates for the biennial election which is necessitated as the term of office of the 25 MLCs will end on January 5, 2022.

The last date for filing nomination papers is on November 23, scrutiny will take place on November 24. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is November 26, and the counting of votes will take place on December 14. PTI