BENGALURU: The by-elections to the Sindagi and Hanagal Assembly constituencies will be held on October 30 and counting of votes will be taken up on November 2. Following the announcement of the dates by the Election Commission of India, political parties have kick-started their campaign to grab the two seats. This will be first big polls in the state after Basavaraj Bommai took over as Chief Minister in July this year. Moreover, Hanagal constituency is in Haveri, the CM’s home district.
The elections were necessitated after Sindagi JDS MLA M C Managuli and Hanagal BJP MLA C M Udasi passed away in January and June, respectively. While both the BJP and JDS are making all efforts to retain the seats, the Congress too is leaving no stone unturned. Though the winning candidates will have a short stint and the numbers will not make much of a difference to the government, all three parties have taken the bypoll battle as a prestige issue.
The Congress has already announced Ashok Managuli as its candidate for Sindagi. Ashok is the son of M C Manuguli and had joined the party sometime back. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Eshwar Khandre said that for the Hanagal seat, the names of Mane Shrinivas, who lost to Udasi in 2018, former MLA Manohar Tahasildar and a couple of others are in consideration. “KPCC president D K Shivakumar, Opposition leader in the Assembly Siddaramaiah and the party high command will decide on the candidate within two days,’’ he said.
The JDS has already selected Niyaz Shaik to contest from Hanagal. Party leader H D Kumaraswamy said the contender for Sindagi will be finalised at the earliest. The ruling BJP has not yet finalised the candidate for both the constituencies. There is buzz that Revathi Udasi, wife of BJP MP Shivakumar Udasi, and daughter-in-law of CM Udasi, will be fielded.
Speaking to reporters, Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said they will finalise the candidates soon and expressed confidence of winning both the seats. At the recent core committee meeting in Davanagere, the party leaders discussed appointing observers to both the segments. “Ultimately, the party top brass and state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel will take a call on this,” he said.
Oct 1 Election notification will be issued and candidates can file nominations
Oct 8 Last day for filing of nominations
Oct 11 Scrutiny of nominations
Oct 13 Last day for withdrawal of nominations
Oct 30 Poll date
Nov 2 Counting