Ashish Ranjan
Karnataka assembly elections: The Congress has announced 124 candidates for the impending assembly elections in Karnataka, which are scheduled for May. Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah will compete in the Varuna constituency, while Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar will run in Kanakapura.
Son of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyank Kharge will run from Chitapur. MB Patil and Dinesh Gundurao have received nominations for the Babaleswar and Gandhinagar constituencies, respectively. The party has dismissed incumbent MLA Venkataramanappa in favor of a new candidate.
Former BJP MLC Puttanna received the Rajajinagar nomination, while former Union Minister KH Muniyappa will run for the Devanahalli seat.
The current representative of Varuna in Mysuru is Yathindra Siddaramaiah, the son of Siddaramaiah. Siddaramaiah, the leader of the Congress Legislature Party, presently represents the Badami segment of Bagalkote district in the state’s northern region. DK Shivakaumar is currently serving as an MLA for Kanakapura.
He was on the verge of deciding to run from Kolar. Siddaramaiah had been preparing the ground for Kolar for the past few months, as it was one of his target constituencies. Siddaramaiah listed Badami, Varuna, and Kolar as the three constituencies he would choose from in his formal application to the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) in February.
Previously, Siddaramaiah indicated that he may compete for assembly in his former home constituency of Varuna. His reluctance to choose a district is said to have delayed the release of the party’s initial list of candidates. In 2018, he was defeated by Chamundeshwari in Mysuru, but he defeated Badami in Bagalkot.
In the coming days, the Election Commission is anticipated to release the polling schedule for the upcoming May assembly elections.
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The Congress had proclaimed three election ‘guarantees’: 200 units of free electricity to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), and 10 kilograms of free rice to each member of a BPL household. (Anna Bhagya). Recently, Rahul Gandhi announced in Belagavi, Karnataka, the “Yuva Nidhi” scheme, which provides a monthly allowance to destitute youth in Karnataka.
