Congress replaces its candidate against CM Bommai as it releases 5th list for Karnataka polls

Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023: Just a day after it fielded Mohammed Yousuf Savanur as its candidate to contest election against Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai from the Shiggaon assembly seat in the Haveri district, the party took a U-turn and nominated a new candidate in his place. The Congress replaced Savanur with Yasir Ahmed Khan Phatan for the Shiggaon seat as it announced its fifth list of three candidates for the May 10 Assembly elections.

A day after fielding Mohammed Yousuf Savanur as its candidate from Shiggaon in Haveri district, the party nominated Yasir Ahmed Khan Phatan in his place.

The party has fielded A C Srinivasa from Pulakeshinagar by denying ticket to its sitting MLA R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy, who today filed nomination as an independent candidate after it was clear that he will not be renominated.

Murthy, a Dalit, had won the 2018 assembly election with the highest margin of 81,626 votes, creating a record.

Murthy's house along with the DJ Halli police station was torched by a violent mob in August 2020, over a social media post shared by his relative.

In Bengaluru's KR Puram, Congress has fielded DK Mohan against BJP's Byrathi Suresh, a Minister in the Basavaraj Bommai government.

Interestingly, Suresh had won the seat on a Congress ticket in the 2018 Assembly polls. He was among the 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs who resigned, which had led to the collapse of the coalition government and paved the way for BJP to come to power in 2019. In the subsequent bypolls he won on BJP ticket.

In Mulbagal, the party has fielded B C Muddugangadhar. In 2018, the seat was won by independent candidate H Nagesh, who is now the Congress candidate from the Mahadevapura segment in Bengaluru.

The Congress has so far announced candidates for 219 out of total 224 seats (including in Melukote where it's backing a candidate of a different party).

Thursday is the last day for filing of nominations.

(With inputs from PTI)