Congress earmarks one seat for Sarvodaya Karnataka Party in second list of candidates

Karnataka will go to polls in a single phase on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13.

The Congress has earmarked the Melukote assembly constituency for Sarvodaya Karnataka Party’s Darshan Puttannaiah. It has so far finalized 142 candidates for the elections. The first list of 100 candidates was released earlier.

The names of the candidates were decided in the meeting of the Central Election Committee held on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.

PTI reported that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and top party leaders from Karnataka, including former chief minister Siddaramaiah, state chief DK Shivakumar and All India Congress Committee in-charge for the state Randeep Surjewala, were present.

The Congress had on March 25 announced its first list of 124 candidates for the polls, which included the names of former chief minister Siddaramaiah and state party president DK Shivakumar.

Kharge said, “We have a meeting of the selection committee, the remaining 100 seats will be discussed. The people of the committee will give their opinion and then a decision will be taken.”

Siddaramaiah will contest from Varuna constituency while DK Shivakumar will be the candidate from Kanakapura.

Siddaramaiah had expressed his interest to contest from the Kolar constituency but congress high command Disagreements among local party leaders in the constituency followed, instructing them to drop the plan. The party has fielded M Roopakala from the Kolar Gold Fields constituency.

The Congress is trying to wrest power from the BJP in Karnataka, the only southern state where the saffron party is in power.

(With PTI inputs)