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Lok Sabha elections 2019: Congress names candidates for 18 seats in Karnataka
Among the other candidates, the party has chosen two MLAs as well. Lingayat leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa (87) from the Davanagere constituency, where he will go up against his son-in-law GM Siddeshwar of the BJP.
The Congress, late on Saturday, released the names of candidates for 18 of the 20 seats it is contesting in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. It chose to retain nine Members of Parliament in the list.
Among the other candidates, the party has chosen two MLAs as well. Lingayat leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa (87) from the Davanagere constituency, where he will go up against his son-in-law GM Siddeshwar of the BJP. Siddeshwar had defeated Shivashankarappa’s son SS Mallikarjun thrice in the constituency.
Also, in the fray is Eshwar Khandre, the state unit’s working president, who will contest the Bidar seat against BJP MP Bhagwanth Khuba. The party has chosen Mithun Rai, district president of Dakshina Kannada, to contest the seat against incumbent Nalin Kumar Kateel of the BJP.
Only one woman - Veena Kashappanavar - has made it to the list; she will contest the Bagalkot seat against BJP MP PC Gaddigoudar.
Except for the Tumakuru seat, which the party gave to alliance partner Janata Dal (Secular), the Congress had retained the other nine constituencies that it had won. Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge will go up against rebel Congress leader Umesh Jadhav who is contesting from the BJP in the Kalaburagi seat.
Former union ministers M Veerappa Moily and KH Muniyappa, who is attempting an eighth successive victory, will contest from the Chikballapur and Kolar seats, respectively.
The Bengaluru Central constituency will see a rematch of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls with the Congress all set to field Rizwan Arshad once again, who will go up against BJP MP PC Mohan. In Mysore, the Congress has chosen former BJP leader CH Vijayshankar, who has won the seat twice in the past, to contest against incumbent Pratap Simha of the BJP.
The Congress has not named its candidates for the Dharwad and Bengaluru South seats, but a senior leader said the names would be announced on Sunday.
Khandre thanked the party leadership for picking him as its candidate for Bidar. In a tweet he said: “Without hard work nothing grows but weeds is what I learnt from my father Shri.Bhimanna Khandre & today I understand it. As I like to thank Shri.@RahulGandhi ji& @kcvenugopalmp ji for giving me this new responsibility to represent Congress party for #LokSabhaElection from #Bidar.”
Arshad said he was honoured to be given a second opportunity. “Deeply honored to have been given the opportunity to contest from Bengaluru Central. The faith & confidence reposed in me by the party leadership is very heartening. I am confident that we will emerge victorious on May 23rd,” he said in a tweet.
