Karnataka Polls: Congress Election Committee to meet today, release second list of candidates

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 6 (ANI): Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar said that the Congress will be releasing its second list of candidates for the Assembly elections scheduled in the State.

The party’s Central Election Committee will meet again today and after that the names of the candidates will be announced post-meeting, Shivakumar said on Wedneday.

Talking to mediapersons, Shivakumar said, “(CEC) will meet again tomorrow. We are finalising it and a list will be announced at the earliest”.

Although the party has announced candidates for 124 seats it is yet to name them in the remaining 100 seats.

On Tuesday, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the party will conduct an extensive discussion on candidates for the remaining 100 seats in the State.

The Congress had on March 25 announced its first list of 124 candidates for the polls, which included names of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and State Party president DK Shivakumar.

Elections are slated to be held in Karnataka in a single phase on May 10, and the counting of votes will take place on May 13.

Siddaramaiah will be contesting from the Varuna constituency while DK Shivakumar would be the candidate from Kanakapura.

Siddaramaiah had expressed his interest to contest from the Kolar constituency but the Congress High Command instructed him to drop the plan following disagreements between the party’s local leaders in the constituency. The party has fielded M Roopakala from the Kolar Gold Field constituency.

On Monday and Tuesday a large number of Congress workers had staged protests outside Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office in Bengaluru seeking tickets for their leaders to contest in the polls.

Karnataka, which has 224 seats in the Assembly currently has 119 MLAs of the ruling BJP, while Congress has 75 and its ally JD(S) has 28 seats.

Political parties in the State including the ruling BJP, Congress and ally JD(S) are engaged in a spate of allegations and counter-allegations, with the latter attempting to corner the government over the issue of corruption.

The model code of conduct had come into effect after elections were announced in the State. (ANI)