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.

On Saturday, a court in the Thane district of Maharashtra granted a permanent exemption to former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi from appearance before it in a 9 year old defamation case filed a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker.

Gandhi’s application which was filed through his counsel Narayan Iyer, was presented before Bhiwandi First Class Judicial Magistrate C Wadikar who came to a conclusion that the Congress leader should be granted a permanent exemption.

A local RSS worker Rajesh Kunte had in 2014 filed a defamation suit at the Bhiwandi Magistrate court against Rahul Gandhi, alleging that Gandhi accused the RSS of Mahatma Gandhi’s killing, Kunte claimed that this tarnished the reputation and image of RSS.

Gandhi appeared physically on hearing in the court in 2018, where he pleaded not guilty. The court has further set June 3 as the date for recording of the evidence in the matter.

The court has granted exemption to Gandhi under certain conditions that his advocate would punctually and regularly appear before the court whenever he is to be asked in absence of his client.

Gandhi, last year had sought exemption from the Bhiwandi court from appearance in the case on the grounds that being a Delhi resident and a Lok Sabha Member, he had a lot of travel to do along with visiting his Wayanad constituency.

The Congress leader got recently disqualified as an MP after he got convicted by a Surat Court in another defamation case over the Modi surname remark.

The Surat court sentenced the former MP to a two year jail term on March 23, 2023 over the defamation case filed against him in 2019 by a BJP legislator from Surat Purnesh Modi.

Kunte, stated an argument before the court that since Gandhi no longer holds any official post as an MP, he should not be granted any exemption.

Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on Saturday said he will stand with the Left front in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Talking to news agency ANI, Deve Gowda said he will stand with left parties in next year’s Lok Sabha polls as the Janata Dal (Secular) on Friday released its second list of candidates for the upcoming May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections.

As per the list, HP Swaroop will contest from Hassan constituency instead of Deve Gowda’s daughter-in-law Bhavani Revanna.

Deve Gowda also batted for the introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill, saying that it would be the “first best thing” after the opening of the new Parliament building.

In a tweet, the JD(S) chief said he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to consider reintroducing the Women’s Reservation Bill which Gowda had taken up in 1996, saying that it would be “the first best thing to do as we move into a new parliament building soon.”

Gowda said when the Election Commission announced polls in Karnataka and released the number of eligible women voters in the state, unsurprisingly the women formed 50 percent of the total electorate and such statistics are the same in other parts of India.

The former PM said the poll commission’s list made him revisit the idea of women’s reservation in legislative assemblies and Parliament and thus he urged PM Modi to consider passing the Women’s Reservation Bill before next year’s Lok Sabha elections with “suitable modifications to the draft presented in 1996 and 2008.

Gowda said granting women one-third reservation in the country’s legislature would be a landmark move in promoting gender justice and women’s empowerment, adding that it would be a symbolic gesture before the move into the new parliament building…. “Our mothers and daughter deserve better from us.”