Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will not be contesting Kolar assembly constituency, according to the third list of 43 candidates released by the Congress on Saturday for next month’s Karnataka Assembly elections.

Siddaramaiah, who is already contesting from Varuna constituency, earlier represented by his son, was seeking to contest Kolar assembly seat as the second constituency, but, as per the list, the Congress has fielded Kothur G Manjunath from the Kolar seat.

According to the list ex-BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi has been fielded from the Athani assembly seat while former Governor Margaret Alva’s son Nivedit Alva will contest from the Kumta assembly seat.

Laxman Savadi resigned from the BJP after being denied a ticket in the upcoming elections, joined the Congress on Friday.

An influential Lingayat leader in Belagavi district, Savadi resigned from the Legislative Council and the BJP on Friday and hours later joined the grand old party.

Congress which is seeking wrest from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming May 10 Assembly polls, has so far fielded candidates in 209 seats, including 124 seats in the first list and another 42 seats in the second list, with seats for 15 more candidates yet to be announced.

In its second list of 41 candidates, the Congress had also marked a seat for Sarvodaya Karnataka Party as the regional outfit’s Darshan Puttannaiah will contest from the Melukote assembly constituency in the poll-bound state.

The Congress, which seeks to oust BJP from power in Karnataka, recently claimed that the saffron party is facing a “mass exodus” in the poll-bound state.

Speaking at a presser earlier this month, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala had claimed having “authentic information” about the BJP being unable to choose its own candidates in the upcoming Karnataka elections due to a “mass exodus” taking place in the party.

Citing “authentic information”, Surjewala claimed that the BJP is not able to select candidates as the right-wing party’s ministers and MLAs are refusing to contest. He claimed that 10 BJP MLAs, MLCs, ex-MLAs and ex-MLCs, their boards and corporation chairmen have resigned in dozens and joined the Congress.

Karnataka goes to polls on May 10 and results for the 224-member Assembly will be announced on May 13.

Karnataka BJP Minister and six-time MLA Angara S on Wednesday announced his retirement from active politics after he was denied a ticket by the party for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

Angara S, an MLA from Sullia in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district, was denied a ticket to contest from the same constituency with the BJP announcing a Scheduled Castes candidate Bhagirathi Murulya in his stead.

On April 11, the BJP announced its first list of 189 candidates for the Karnataka elections followed by a second list of 23 candidates on April 12. Angara was not named in either list.

Responding to the party denying him a ticket for the upcoming polls, Angara said he was shocked and claimed that that his honesty became his undoing.

The Minister said he was retiring from active politics effective immediately and also will not campaign for the BJP in the upcoming elections.

Read Also: BJP announces list of candidates for Punjab, Odisha bypolls

Talking to newsmen, Angara said he was never much for lobbying and is quitting politics and the party can take care of the new candidate themselves as he will not campaign in the Karnataka Assembly elections.

The BJP announced as many as 52 fresh faces in the party first list of candidates which includes 32 candidates from the OBC community and 30 from the Scheduled Caste community.

The saffron party in its second list of candidates replaced as many as 7 sitting MLAs, including Angara S, however, the party has yet to announce its list of candidates for 12 constituencies including that of Hubli Dharwad Central, Krishnaraja, Shivamogga, Mahadevpura etc.

Nagaraja Chabbi, who joined the BJP after quitting the Congress, will contest on the party’s ticket from Kalghatgi constituency, while ex-MLA Y Sampangi’s daughter Ashwini Sampangi has been fielded by the party from the Kolar gold fields (KGF).

Assembly Elections in Karnataka will be held in a single phase on May 10 and results will be declared on May 13.

Bihar court summons Rahul Gandhi in defamation suit over Modi surname remark

PM Modi thanks Rajasthan CM Gehlot at Vande Bharat launch event, talked about state’s political crisis

Thursday, the former deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka Laxman Savadi resigned from the primary membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party after being denied ticket.

The BJP last night released its first list of 189 candidates for the Karnataka assembly elections scheduled for 10^th May, 2023. In the list there was no mention of Savadi’s name.

Laxman Savadi was a senior leader of the BJP Karnataka unit who served as the deputy chief minister when B.S. Yediyurappa sat on the Chief Minister’s seat in 2019 after H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Savadi considered being one of Yediyurappa loyalist was the most prominent Lingayat face of BJP after the latter, he contested the 2018 state polls from the Athani constituency against Congress’s Mahesh Kumtahalli who won the seat.

Kumtahalli was one of the rebel MLAs who left their party and joined hands with BJP that help form its government under Yediyurappa in 2019.

Read Also: BJP inciting riots in Maharashtra, claims Aaditya Thackeray

The BJP on late on Wednesday denied Laxman Savadi’s ticket and went on to choose Kumtahalli as the most favourable candidate for the Athani constituency.

BJP sidelined Savadi had been applying pressure over the party high command for ticket for a long time but the pressure went vague. Addressing the reporters Savadi said that for the decision of the people of Athani constituency is the priority than the party’s decision and that he will take a final decision tomorrow post discussion with his supporters.

Savadi has convened a meeting of his supporters on Thursday to take a decision on his future path.

There are speculations about Laxman Savadi probability of joining Congress but Karnataka state Congress working president Satish Jarkiholi giving clarification said there was no such discussion on senior level and nothing about it has not to his knowledge yet.

Of the 189 candidates that were announced by the BJP, 52 are new entrants who have assigned tickets. The list includes 32 OBC candidates, 30 SC candidates, and 16 ST candidates.

After defying party with protest, Sachin Pilot in Delhi today, likely to meet high-command

Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena to contest polls, launch outreach campaign in BJP-ruled Goa