Ahead of the crucial state assembly polls in Karantaka, Congress on Saturday announced its first list of 124 candidates.
Some of the important candidates whose names were included in the list are former state chief Siddharamaiah, state unit party chief D.K. Shivakumar, former deputy state chief G Parameshwara, as well as former ministers K.H. Muniappa and Priyank Kharge - the son of the Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
Siddharamaiah will be contesting the polls from the Varuna constituency, while Shivakumar has been fielded from Kanakapura. The party has fielded Parameshwara, Muniappa, and Kharge from Koratagere, Devanahalli, and Chitapur, respectively.
Congress has become the first party in the state to release the list of the candidates. However, the dates of the elections are yet to be announced by the Election Commission.
The tenure of the Karnataka State Assembly ends in May, so the elections are likely to happen before then.
According to media reports, the names of the candidates were cleared by the party’s central election committee after a meeting in Delhi on March 17. Congress chief Kharge is the chairman of the committee, while the meeting was also attended by Rahul Gandhi.
Congress is looking forward to wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the previous state assembly polls in 2018, an alliance of Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) formed the government after the two parties collectively won 117 out of 224 seats.
However, the government collapsed after several members of both the parties resigned, and later the BJP formed the government.