Congress announces tickets for party hoppers in second list of 42 candidates

BENGALURU: The Congress central leadership on Thursday announced the party’s second list of 42 candidates for the upcoming Assembly election. The party had earlier announced 124 candidates.

Interestingly, the second list too does not mention the candidate for Kolar, as there is much speculation that Siddaramaiah may contest from there. His name has already been announced as candidate from Varuna constituency.

Also, Y S V Datta, who recently quit the JD(S) and joined Congress, has been denied the ticket from Kadur and the party has instead chosen Anand K S. However, all others who switched sides have been given tickets.

Despite protest from supporters of Yogesh Babu, the party has chosen N Y Gopalakrishna, who switched from the BJP, to contest from Molakalmuru.

Among others, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Priyank Kharge will contest from his Chittapur seat while M B Patil and Dinesh Gundurao have been given tickets from Babaleswar and Gandhinagar constituencies, respectively.