Bengaluru, May 3 (IANS) A total of 25 candidates, including four women, are in the fray for the two assembly by-elections in Karnataka on May 19, an official said on Thursday.
“After the last day of withdrawals today (Thursday), 17 candidates are in the fray for the Chincholi (SC) seat in Kalaburagi district and 8 for the Kundagol seat in Dharwad,” the official said.
Prominent faces among the candidates for Chincholi are Avinash Umesh Jadhav of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Subhash V Rathod of the Congress and Gautam Bomnalli of the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Avinash is the son of Umesh Jadhav, whose resignation from the seat necessitated the by-election.
Jadhav senior quit the Congress and joined the BJP in early March. He had contested the Gulbarga (SC) constituency against Congress leader in the outgoing Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
Besides the three main contestants, 11 Independents, including two women, are in the race along with three others.
In the Kundagol contest, Kusumavati Channabasappa is contesting from the Congress against S.I. Chikkanagoudar of the BJP. The remaining 6, including a woman, are Independents.
The seat was held by state Minister C.S. Shivalli, whose death on March 22 necessitated the bypoll. The Congress has fielded his widow.
A three-time legislator, Chikkanagoudar lost to Shivalli by a margin of 633 votes in the May 2018 Assembly elections. He is also related to BJP’s state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa, who will campaign for him.
Congress Legislative Party leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and state unit President Dinesh Gundu Rao will campaign for Kusumavati.
The vote count is on May 23 along with that of 28 Lok Sabha seats for which polling was held in two phases on April 18 and April 23.
Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) have a coalition government in the state and are contesting the national polls 2019 in an alliance to take on Bharatiya Janata Party.
Apart from the Karnataka, The EC has also announced to the by-polls in 5 parliamentary seats of West Bengal, a seat of UP’s Agra, and an assembly seat of Darjeeling.
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