Karnataka polls: Congress announces its final list of candidates

The Congress on Thursday released its sixth and final list, announcing candidates for the remaining five constituencies for the May 10 Assembly polls in Karnataka. Today is the last day for filing nominations.

The Congress has nominated B V Rajeev Gowda from Sidlaghatta, replacing sitting MLA V Muniyappa.

The other candidates announced are: Mohammed Shalam for Raichur, S Anand Kumar from C V Raman Nagar, H P Sridhar Gowda from Arkalgud and Inayath Ali from Mangalore City North.

With this, the Congress has fielded candidates for all the 224 Assembly segments in the state.

The Congress on Wednesday night had announced its fifth list of three candidates, and had replaced the candidate against Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in Shiggaon.

A day after fielding Mohammed Yousuf Savanur as its candidate from Shiggaon in Haveri district, the party nominated Yasir Ahmed Khan Phatan in his place. The party has fielded A C Srinivasa from Pulakeshinagar by denying a ticket to sitting MLA R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy, who on Wednesday filed nomination as an independent candidate after it was clear that he will not be re-nominated.

Murthy, a Dalit, had won the 2018 Assembly elections with the highest margin of 81,626 votes, creating a record. His house along with the DJ Halli police station was torched by a violent mob in August 2020, over a social media post shared by his relative.

In Bengaluru's K R Puram, Congress has fielded D K Mohan against BJP's Byrathi Basavaraj, a Minister in the Basavaraj Bommai government.

Interestingly, Byrathi Basavaraj had won the seat on a Congress ticket in the 2018 Assembly polls. He was among the 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs who resigned, which had led to the collapse of the coalition government and paved the way for BJP to come to power in 2019. In the subsequent bypolls, he won on a BJP ticket.

In Mulbagal, the party has fielded B C Muddugangadhar. In 2018, the seat was won by independent candidate H Nagesh, who is now the Congress candidate from Mahadevapura segment in Bengaluru.

Scrutiny of nominations will take place on April 21, and the last day for the withdrawal of candidature is April 24.