BENGALURU: Former minister Anand Asnotikar of the JD(S) will take on candidate Union minister and BJP candidate Anant Kumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada. Hegde is seeking re-election from the constituency.
The JD(S) on Tuesday named its candidates for Uttara Kannada and Bijapur Lok Sabha seats. The party has decided to field Sunita Devanand Chavan, wife of Nagatan JD(S) MLA Devananda Chavan from Bijapur (reserved) constituency. She is pitted against BJP candidate and Union minister Ramesh Jigajinagi. Sources said the JD(S) offered the party ticket to Congress leader and former MLA Raju Algur, but he turned it down.
Uttara Kannada and Bijapur were among the eight seats the JD(S) got from the Congress as part of the seat-sharing arrangement. Party supremo HD Deve Gowda is contesting from Tumkur, his grandson Prajwal Revanna is the party candidate from Hassan, and another grandson, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, is contesting from Mandya.
Mandhu Bangarappa is the contesting from Shivamogga, while former Congress minister Pramod Madhwaraj is contesting from Udupi-Chikmagalur LS seat. The JD(S) returned Bangalore North to the Congress, which named Krishna Byregowda to take on BJP’s Sadananda Gowda.