The Congress on Friday announced its first list of seven candidates in Karnataka for the Lok Sabha election.
Except for Bengaluru Rural, the party has fielded in six other constituencies candidates who had not contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election. D.K Suresh, MP and brother of Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar, will contest again from Bengaluru Rural constituency. He is currently the lone Congress MP from Karnataka.
Caste-wise break up
In the list of seven, four belong to the Vokkaliga community, and one each belongs to Eidiga, Lingayat-Veerashaiva, and Scheduled Caste community.
Owing to an alliance with the JD(S) back in 2019, the Congress had not fielded candidates in Hassan, Vijayapura, Shivamogga, and Tumakuru constituencies.
Recent entrant
S.P. Muddahanume Gowda, who was denied the Congress ticket following the alliance with the JD(S) in 2019, had quit the party and joined the BJP. Recently, he quit the BJP and rejoined the Congress. He will contest from the Tumakuru constituency. Mr. Muddahanume Gowda, who belongs to the Vokkaliga community, had won the Lok Sabha seat in 2014. In 2019, the Congress-JD(S) alliance fielded the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda in Tumakuru but he lost to the BJP.
In Hassan, the party has fielded Shreyas Patel, who had lost the 2023 Assembly election against the former Minister H.D. Revanna in the Holenarsipur constituency in the district by a slender margin of 3,152 votes. Mr. Patel is the grandson of G. Puttaswamy Gowda, former MP, who had defeated Mr. H.D. Deve Gowda in the 1999 parliamentary election.
Star’s wife
In Shivamogga, Geetha Shivarajkumar, wife of Kannada actor Shivarajkumar, will contest the election. Ms. Geetha Shivarajkumar, daughter of the former Chief Minister late S. Bangarappa, contested for the Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat on the JD(S) ticket in 2014 and lost. Her brother Madhu Bangarappa, now a Minister in the Congress government, contested in 2019 on the JD(S) ticket and lost to the BJP’s B.Y. Raghavendra. Ms. Geetha Shivarajkumar belongs to the Ediga community.
Builder Venkatarame Gowda, popularly known as ‘Star Chandru‘, is the party candidate in Mandya. Mr. Venkatarame Gowda is the brother of K.H. Puttaswamy Gowda, Independent MLA for Gauribidanur. A Vokkaliga, he is contesting elections for the first time.
Against former CM?
The party has fielded Anand Gaddadevaramath, a Lingayat, from Haveri. Mr. Gaddadevaramath’s father was an MLA for Shirahatti constituency. Out of the eight Assembly constituencies in Haveri parliamentary constituency, the Congress has won seven, including those represented by Minister H.K. Patil and Deputy Speaker Rudrappa Lamani. The Congress had fielded D.R. Patil in 2019 in Haveri and he had lost to Shivakumar Udasi of the BJP. Mr. Udasi is the son of the former Minister late C.M. Udasi, who has decided not to contest elections in 2024. The BJP is likely to field either Jagadish Shettar or Basavaraj Bommai, both former Chief Ministers.
The former MLA H.R. Algur (Raju Algur) is the party’s candidate in Vijayapura (SC) reserved constituency. In 2019, the Congress-JD(S) alliance candidate Sunita Chavan (JD-S) lost to Ramesh Jigajinagi of the BJP.
The party is expected to announce candidates for the rest of the 21 constituencies next week.
