BENGALURU: After a prolonged wait and the Indian National Congress released its first list of candidates from Karnataka for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Of the 20 seats in its kitty after seat-sharing with alliance partners Lok Sabha polls, the Congress has announced names for 18 seats.
Like Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress is maintaining suspense on Bangalore South.
The party is yet to announce its candidate for Hubli-Dharwad seat. Eight other constituencies have been handed over to the JDS.
Of its ten MPs, the Congress has retained nine and could not accommodate Tumkur's Muddahanumegowda since the seat has been conceded to the JDS. Former Prime Minister and JDS national President HD Devegowda will contest as the coalition's joint candidate from the seat.
The sitting MP, Muddahanumegowda, however, on Saturday decided to rebel against the party's decision and said he would file nominations too on Monday.
MPs Prakash Hukkeri from Chikkodi, Mallikarjun Kharge from Gulbarga, BV Nayak from Raichur, VS Ugrappa from Bellary, BN CHandrappa from Chitradurga, DK Suresh from Bangalore rural, KH Muniyappa from Kolar, Dhruvanarayana from Chamarajanagar and Veerappa Moily from Chikkaballapur will fight to be reelected from their constituencies once again.
After much deliberations, Veena Kashappanavar, the only woman candidate from Congress' first list, will contest from Bagalkot.
Current MLC Rizwan Arshad has been chosen to contest from the high-profile Bangalore central where he would once again take on BJP's PC Mohan. Rizwan has been picked over senior Congress leader Roshan Baig.
KPCC's working president Eshwar Khandre will contest from Bidar, considered a safe seat for the Congress.
Other names include Virupaksha Sadunnavar for Belgaum, Rajashekhar Hitnal for Koppal, D R Patil for Haveri, Shamanur Shivashankarappa for Davangere, Mithun Rai for Dakshin Kannada, Vijayashankar for Mysore have been announced as candidates.