The Congress party is still uncertain over the candidate for the Ballari Lok Sabha bypoll while the JD(S) ended the uncertainty announcing Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha Kumaraswamy as the candidate for the Ramanagara Assembly constituency and Madhu Bangarappa, son of former chief minister late S Bangarappa, as the candidate for the Shivamogga parliamentary seat.
For Mandya, the JD(S) seems to have finalised LR. Shivarame Gowda whose ‘resourcefulness’ won the day for him. In Ramanagara, the Congress succeeded in quelling its rebellion with its rebel candidate, Iqbal Hussain who had secured nearly 65,000 votes against Mr Kumaraswamy in the May Assembly polls, deciding to back Anita Kumaraswamy and not contest.
The Congress, has already announced that Anand Nyamegouda, son of late MLA Sidhu Nyamegouda who was killed in a road accident on May 28, will be its candidate from the Jamkhandi Assembly seat. The party is yet to decide on its candidate for the Ballari Lok Sabha seat. The bypolls to three Lok Sabha seats Shivamogga, Mandya and Ballari and the two assembly seats of Ramanagara and Jamkhandi will take place on November 3.
Speaking to reporters, JD(S) state general secretary M. Srikanth said Mr Bangarappa would be the alliance candidate for Shivamogga. Mr Bangarappa will meet JD(S) supremo H. D. Deve Gowda on Monday, before leaving for Shivamogga to file his nomination papers. The Congress, in a press release, stated that it had appointed poll in-charge for the seats from where JD(S) candidates would fight the by-elections. Industries Minister K.J. George will oversee the Mandya parliamentary seat while Revenue Minister R.V. Deshpande and MP D.K. Suresh would be in charge of Shivamogga and Ramanagara respectively.
The bypolls were necessitated following the resignations of BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa from the Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat, C.S. Puttaraju from Mandya and B. Sriramulu from Ballari. The Ramanagara seat was vacated by CM Kumaraswamy, who won from both Channapatna and Ramanagara seats and opted to represent the former in the Assembly.
