Ex-MLA in fray from M’luru City South

Mangaluru: With the KPCC releasing its third list of candidates for the assembly election on Saturday, three aspirants from the coastal districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kananda have been selected by the party to contest.
While the KPCC has issued the ticket to contest from the Mangaluru City South constituency to John Richard Lobo, the party has finalised the name of Ashok Kumar Rai for the Puttur segment.
Was MLA from 2013-18
Lobo was the MLA of Mangaluru City South between 2013 and 2018. He lost to D Vedavyas Kamath of the BJP in the assembly election held in 2018. Industrialist Ashok Kumar Rai, a close associate of former Union minister DV Sadananda Gowda, had quit the BJP and joined the Congress at a Prajadhwani convention in Mangaluru in January.
Meanwhile, the party has also announced Uday Kumar Shetty as the candidate to contest from Karkala constituency, which is represented by minister V Sunil Kumar. Shetty, a contractor, is contesting the assembly election for the first time. Though his name was doing rounds in the Congress circles in 2018, he had missed the ticket then.
Candidates announced by the party in the first list include former ministers B Ramanath Rai (Bantwal), UT Khader (Mangaluru), Vinaya Kumar Sorake (Kaup), Youth Congress leader Mithun Rai (Mulki-Moodbidri), Rakshith Shivaram (Belthangady), M Dinesh Hegde (Kundapur), K Gopal Pujari (Byndoor) and Krishnappa G (Sullia).
The party had chosen new faces Rakshith Shivaram, G Krishnappa, Mithun Rai and M Dinesh Hegde in the first list. In the second list, the party has added one more new face, by offering a ticket to entrepreneur Prasadraj Kanchan.
With the KPCC announcing the names of candidates for 12 out of 13 constituencies in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, the decision on who the party will field for the Mangaluru City North segment is yet to be taken.
Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee president K Harish Kumar said that candidates for the remaining two seats will be finalised within a day or two.