Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar figure in Congress's first list of candidates for Karnataka Assembly elections

BENGALURU: As the Congress party unveiled its first list of 124 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Karnataka due in May 2023, the Congress Legislative Party(CLP) leader Siddaramaiah's name has been cleared for Varuna seat in Mysuru. This means his son Dr Yathindra, debutante MLA in 2018, has sacrificed the seat for his father.

But Badami seat which he is presently representing and Kushtagi seat, if he is proposed to contest from two seats-one from the south and another from the north Karnataka, remain open.

Interestingly, veteran Congress leader K H Muniyappa, the seven-time MP and former Union Minister, has returned to state politics and has been fielded by the party from Devanahalli, while his daughter and sitting MLA from KGF Roopakala M has once again got the ticket from the segment.

The party considering loyalty has declared Darshan, son of KPCC working president Dhruvanarayan who died recently, to field the Nanjanagudu assembly constituency.

Veteran leader Shamanuru Shivashankarappa at the age of 91 continues to be the party's nominee from Davanagere south while his son S S Mallikarjun, former minister, will contest from Davanagere north. Veterans-former DCM Dr G Parameshwara and former minister T B Jayachandra, who had lost two successive polls, will be contesting from Koratagere and Sira assembly constituencies respectively in Tumakuru district. Former minister H C Mahadevappa will be contesting from T Narasipura.

In the IT capital of the country, Bengaluru, there are some surprises. Anup Iyer has been declared as the candidate and he will take on the IT/BT minister Dr C N Ashwathnarayan of BJP and Puttanna who resigned from his MLC seat represented by BJP veteran and former minister S Suresh Kumar.

The controversial Pulakeshinagara assembly seat has been kept open as there was opposition from the minority community against the incumbent MLA R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy.

Except for this, most of the incumbent MLAs from the party have managed to get the nomination to contest the upcoming polls. As the name of former minister D Sudhakar has been cleared for the Hiriyuru assembly seat in Chitradurga district, the chances of the incumbent BJP MLA Poornima Srinivas, daughter of former Congress minister late A Krishnappa, have been ruled out. Chikkaballapura BJP LS member B N Bachegowda's son and independent MLA Sharath Bachegowda's name has been cleared for Hoskote.

There are eight Muslim candidates in the first list they are- U.T.Abdul Khader Ali Fareed (Mangalore), Tanveer Sait (Narasimharaja), N.A.Haris (Shanti Nagar), Rizwan Arshad (Shivajinagar), Rahim Khan (Bidar), Iqbal Hussain H A (Ramanagaram), B.Z.Zameer Ahmed Khan (Chamrajpet), and Kaneez Fatima (Gulbarga Uttar). Six women have made it to the first list- Kaneez Fatima, Laxmi Ravindra Hebbalkar (Belgaum Rural), Dr Anjali Nimbalkar (Khanapur), Roopakala M (KGF), Kusuma H (Rajarajeshwarinagar), Sowmya R (Jayanagar).

The constituencies including Yashwantpur in Bengaluru and K R Pete in Mandya have been kept open as the party is still waiting for formidable candidates and expecting the incumbents S T Somashekar and Narayanagowda to switch, (who had joined BJP from Congress and JD(S) respectively), their loyalty to Congress.

Former minister B S Yediyurappa's aides including U B Banakar, Hirekeruru seat and RSS man K S Kirankumar from Chikkanayakanahalli assembly constituency managed to make a cut.
The candidates for some of the seats with complexities including Tumakuru city, C V Raman Nagar, and Yadgir among others are not declared yet. The party is likely to announce its candidates for the remaining 100 seats as the polls approach. The Election Commission of India is expected to announce the poll schedule in the next few days.