Congress announces second list of candidates for 17 Lok Sabha seats

New Delhi: Ending the suspense over the choice of its candidates for Lok Sabha (LS) seats from Karnataka, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Thursday released the second list of Congress candidates for 17 LS seats of the State. However, the Congress is yet to name its candidates for the remaining four seats in the State, which has 28 seats. The Congress had announced the names of candidates for 7 LS  seats last week.

According to the list released yesterday, KPCC Spokesperson from Mysuru M. Lakshmana is the party’s choice for Mysuru-Kodagu LS seat. He will take on Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar of the BJP in the polls to be held on Apr. 26.

The Congress has fielded a good number of kith and kin of Ministers and top party leaders. The second list of 17 candidates include B.N. Chandrappa-Chitradurga (SC), Souwmya Reddy, daughter of Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy from Bengaluru South, Mansur Ali Khan from Bengaluru Central, Prof. M.V. Rajiv Gowda from Bengaluru North, Mrinal Hebbalkar, son of Women and Child Welfare Minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar from Belagavi, Priyanka Jarkiholi, daughter of PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi from Chikkodi, Samyukta Shivanand Patil, daughter of Sugar Minister Shivanand Patil from Bagalkot, Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of Minister of Mines and Geology S.S. Mallikarjun from Davanagere, Vinod Asuti from Dharwad, Radhakrishna Doddamani, son-in-law of AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge from Gulbarga (SC), G. Kumar Nayak, a former IAS officer from Raichur (ST), Padmaraj from Dakshina Kannada, former Minister K. Jayaprakash Hegde from Udupi-Chikkamagalur, K. Rajashekar Hitnal from Koppal, former MLA  Anjali Nimbalkar, wife of IPS officer Hemanth Nimbalkar from Uttara Kannada, Sagar Khandre, son of Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre from Bidar and KPCC Spokesperson M. Lakshmana from Mysuru-Kodagu Lok Sabha Constituency.

Bengaluru Central candidate Mansur Ali Khan is the son of former Union Minister K. Rahman Khan, while Koppal Candidate Rajashekar Hitnal is the brother of sitting Koppal Congress MLA Raghavendra Hitnal, Chitradurga candidate B.N. Chandrappa is a KPCC Working President                                     and Dakshina Kannada candidate Padmaraj is a close associate of veteran party leader and former Union Minister B. Janardhan Poojary.

With the release of second list, the Congress has announced the names of party candidates for 24 seats of the State, while it is yet to announce the name of candidates for the four remaining seats of Kolar (SC), Ballari (ST), Chamarajanagar (SC)  and Chikkaballapur.

While 14 of the 28 seats go to the polls in the second phase of elections in the country to take place on Apr. 26, the remaining 14 will go to polls on May 7. The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4 after all the 7 phases of polling across the country concludes on June 1.