Congress names 6 more candidates for K’taka bypolls (Lead)

Bengaluru, Nov 17 (IANS) The opposition Congress on Saturday named six more candidates for contesting the 15 Assembly by-elections across Karnataka on December 5.

"Interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi has approved the names of the candidates for contesting the Karnataka assembly by-elections," Congress General Secretary Mukul Wasnik in a statement in New Delhi.

The candidates are G.B. Mangasuli (Athani), B.A. Kage (Kagwad), Lakha Jarkiholi (Gokak), Venkatrao Ghorpade (Vijayanagara), Rizwan Arshad (Shivajinagara) and K.B. Chandrashekar (K.R. Pet).

The party had announced candidates for eight other Assembly segments on October 31. They are: Bhimmanna Naik (Yellapur), B.H. Bannikod (Hirekerur), K.B. Koliwad (Rannebennur), M. Anjanappa (Chikkaballapur), M. Narayanswamy (K.R. Pura), M. Shivaraj (Mahalakshmi Layout), Padmavathi Suresh (Hoskote) and H.P. Manjunath (Hunsur).

The Congress is yet to announce candidate for the Yeshwanthapura seat in Bengaluru north.

The by-elections have been necessitated in 17 Assembly segments following the resignation of their legislators belonging to the Congress (14) and Janata Dal-Secular (3) in July. Elections have been withheld in two seats because of pending court cases.

Bypolls in Muski (Raichur district) and R.R. Nagar (Bengaluru southwest) have been withheld due to litigation in the Karnataka High Court over their results in the May 2018 Aassembly elections.

The counting of votes will take place on December 9.