Congress retains most veterans for Karnataka Assembly election

KPCC president DK Shivakumar (Kanakapura), former minister H C Mahadevappa (T Narasipura), former DCM G Parameshwara (Koratagere) and former minister TB Jayachandra (Sira) will contest the assembly elections from their respective constituencies.

In a surprise move, the Congress has declared Anup Iyengar, a political novice, as its candidate for Malleswaram and he will take on IT/BT Minister C N Ashwathnarayan of the BJP. Puttanna, who resigned as BJP MLC, has been given the Rajajinagar seat, currently held by BJP veteran S Suresh Kumar. Pulakeshinagar has been kept open as there was opposition from the minority community to the candidature of MLA R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy.

D Sudhakar has been cleared for Hiriyuru in Chitradurga district instead of BJP MLA Poornima Srinivas, daughter of former Congress minister late A Krishnappa, who switched loyalty to Congress.

Chikkaballapur BJP MP B N Bachegowda’s son and independent MLA Sharath Bachegowda has been given Hoskote seat, putting an end to speculation of minister MTB Nagaraj’s retreat to Congress.

Candidates for Yeshwanthpur and KR Pete have not been announced as Congress is still expecting ministers ST Somashekar and Narayanagowda to join the party at the last minute.

AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge’s ‘Man Friday’ and MLC UB Venkatesh (Basavanagudi), former minister AK Subbaiah’s son AS Ponnanna (Virajpet), Leader of Opposition in the Council BK Hariprasad’s nephew Rakshith Shivaram (Belthangady), former CM BS Yediyurappa’s aides UB Banakar (Hirekerur) and RSS man KS Kirankumar (Chikkanayakanahalli) have made it to the list. Eight Muslims figure in the list, including Iqbal Hussain HA (Ramanagara), Tanveer Sait (Narasimharaja), UT Khader (Mangaluru), and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan (Chamrajpet).