Karnataka: Congress Likely To Release Second List Of Candidates, Call On Siddaramaiah's Second Seat To Be Taken

Congress has already announced its first list of 124 candidates. The Karnataka unit has finalised names for 52 Assembly constituencies in the second list.

KPCC President DK Shivakumar and party leader Siddaramaiah

Source : PTI

The Congress is likely to release its second list of candidates for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly election on Tuesday following a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee. The meeting will take place at 10.30 am at the Congress headquarters in Delhi.

Elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly will take place on May 10 and the results will be announced on May 13. 

Congress had already announced its first list of 124 candidates on March 25. The Karnataka unit of the Congress has finalised names for 52 Assembly constituencies in the second list and the Central Election Committee headed by AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge is likely to take a final call, PTI reported.

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The Congress high command is also likely to take a call on whether former chief minister Siddaramaiah would contest from the second constituency of Kolar. Siddaramaiah has already been fielded from his home turf of Varuna in Mysuru district.

After the announcement last month, Siddaramaiah had expressed his intention to contest from the second seat of Kolar too.

Speaking of his chances of contesting from Kolar, the veteran Congress leader told PTI, "It has to be decided by the high command, they will decide on Tuesday."

Meanwhile, in another setback to the BJP, Kudligi MLA NY Gopalakrishna joined the Congress on Monday and is likely to be fielded as a candidate from Molakalmuru constituency.

However, the decision did not impress a section of Congress workers, who protested outside the KPCC office, demanding the ticket to party leader Yogesh Babu.

Recently, two MLCs from BJP -- Puttanna and Baburao Chinchansur -- had quit from their Legislative Council membership to join the Congress.

JD(S) MLA S R Srinivas (Gubbi Srinivas alias Vasu) too joined the Congress, after resigning as MLA on March 27.