Karnataka: Congress's second list of bypoll contestants on Nov 13

The Karnataka Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao on Sunday said the second list of candidates for assembly byelections would be announced on November 13 after the Supreme Court verdict on the disqualified MLAs.

The Congress had released the first list of eight candidates on October 31.

The decision on the second list of seven candidates was taken at a party meeting in Bengaluru.

“We have had a detailed discussion on the selection of candidates for the rest of the places. There is another meeting of the senior leaders on Monday, where we will take a final decision,” Rao told reporters after the meeting.

He added, “We will announce the names of our candidates on November 13 after the court verdict, which is likely to come on November 13. By the evening of that day, we will announce the names of the rest of the candidates."

The state Congress chief expressed his confidence about the party's victory in all the 15 places where the byelections would take place on December 5.

Giving reasons for the party's good show, Rao said the BJPs popularity graph has declined due to the policies of the Centre and the State.

Rao added that the scope for winning in all the 15 constituencies is high because there is unity in the party.

In its first list released on October 31, the party announced that Bhimanna Naik would contest from Yellapur, B.H. Bannikod (Hirekerur) K.B. Koliwad (Ranebennur) M. Anjanappa (Chikkaballapura), M. Narayanaswamy (K.R. Puram), M. Shivaraj (Mahalakshmi Layout) Padmavathi Suresh (Hosakote) and H.P. Manjunath would seek election from Hunsur.

Mahalakshmi Layout and Hunsur were represented by JD(S) members, the party which was Congress ally in the previous coalition government.