New Delhi: Hours before the deadline for filing nomination for the Karnataka Assembly elections, Congress MP from Bangalore Rural D K Suresh filed his papers from Kanakapura segment on Thursday, news agency PTI reported. D K Suresh is the brother of state unit party president D K Shivakumar, who had earlier filed his nomination for the same seat on April 17.
According to the report, D K Suresh filed his papers as a backup plan in case the nomination of Shivakumar gets rejected.
"Bangalore Rural MP D K Suresh filed his nomination today to contest the state assembly election from Kanakapura constituency," Karnataka Congress tweeted.
It is to be noted that Shivakumar has won from the Kanakapura seat thrice since 2008.
The ruling BJP has fielded a senior minister and its prominent Vokkaliga face R Ashoka from the constituency to take on Shivakumar.
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Notably, Suresh is the lone Congress Member of Parliament from Karnataka. He had earlier said that he was not interested in joining state politics, amid speculations that he may be fielded from Ramanagara, against JD(S) leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Kumaraswamy.
There had also been speculation that as a "retaliatory measure" to the saffron party’s plan of fielding a strong candidate against Shivakumar in Kanakapura, his brother may be fielded from the Padmanabhanagar segment, the other seat from where Ashoka is contesting.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Wednesday released the list of star campaigners for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections on May 10. Party leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, party MP Shashi Tharoor are among the ones who will be campaigning in the poll-bound state. The list has a total of 40 names who will be campaigning for the state.