Karnataka Elections: Congress Releases 3rd List Of 43 Candidates, Laxman Savadi To Contest From Athani

Congress on Saturday released the third list of 43 candidates for the upcoming Karnataka elections.

The Congress party on Saturday released the third list of 43 candidates for the upcoming Karnataka elections. The party has fielded former deputy CM of the state Laxman Savadi from the Athani constituency. Kolar seat has been given to Kothur G Manjunath. This comes a day after Congress lashed out at the BJP accusing the party of not treating its leaders in the right way. While talking to the media, former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said that BJP should not have treated Savadi like this by denying him a ticket at all despite the fact that he's a senior leader in the party.

"Laxman Savadi was denied a ticket (by the BJP). Since he is a senior leader, BJP shouldn't have treated him like this. The only condition Savadi has made (to Congress) is that he should be treated properly with all due respect," he added.

Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar also stressed the same adding that 'Laxman Savadi was humiliated by the BJP'. He said, "He (Laxman Savadi) feels that he has been humiliated (by the BJP). It is our duty to take such great leaders into Congress. Around 9-10 sitting legislators want to join us but we don't have space to accommodate them."

The BJP on Friday sharply reacted to Congress's decision to give a ticket to former Karnataka deputy CM Laxman Savadi who recently left BJP. Arun Singh, BJP Karnataka in-charge said, "Even after losing the election, BJP made him deputy CM and then MLC, even after that, he is going to a party (Congress) with such quarrels where the leaders are divided into two groups. He has made a big mistake & will regret it later."

Congress has so far announced candidates on 209 out of 224 assembly seats in the state.

Karnataka Congress had announced the first list of 124 candidates for the state's Assembly election before the announcement of the election schedule by the Election Commission.

KPCC president DK Shivakumar on Congress's first candidate list for Karnataka polls said, "Congress party has already cleared all the names that the central selection community and the screening community had cleared it."

In a release, Congress announced that DK Shivakumar will be contesting from Kanakapura constituency. Priyank Kharge will be contesting from Chitapur (SC) constituency. Amid expectations that Siddaramaiah will contest from Varuna, the leader was allotted the same constituency by the Congress high command.

In the second list of 42 candidates, 41 were from Congress and one seat is marked for the regional outfit Sarvodaya Karnataka Party. The Congress has marked the Melukote assembly constituency for Darshan Puttannaiah of the Sarvodaya Karnataka Party. The party had announced candidates on 124 seats earlier.

In the second list, four leaders who joined the Congress recently have been given tickets. They are N Y Gopalakrishna, Baburao Chinchansur, S R Srinivas and V S Patil.