Karnataka elections 2023: Congress on Wednesday (April 19) released its fifth list of candidates for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections. It is pertinent to mention that the grand old party has made a minor change by replacing the candidate against current state Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. Congress has changed the Shiggaon Assembly candidate from where BJP has fielded CM Basavaraj Bommai.
The party in its fourth list had fielded Mohammed Yousuf Savanur from the Shiggaon assembly seat, from where Bommai is the BJP candidate. Bommai represents the Shiggaon constituency in the outgoing assembly. After announcing Yusuf Savnoor, the party have now given the ticket to Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan from Shiggaon.
Sachin Pilot's name missing from star campaigners’s list
Earlier in the day, Congress released the list of star campaigners for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly election. The list included the names of party president Mallikarjun Kharge, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, state chief DK Shivakumar, LoP Siddaramaiah, Jagadish Shettar, Shashi Tharoor and others to campaign for the party.
However, the name of the former Rajasthan deputy chief minister and party leader Sachin Pilot was dropped from the list and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is among the list of 40-star campaigners for the upcoming election.
Congress gives ticket to Jagadish Shettar
On Tuesday, Congress released its fourth list of 7 candidates for the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023. The party has fielded Jagadish Shettar from Hubli-Dhrwad-central, who recently resigned from BJP and joined Congress. The resignation of Shettar resulted in a major political fight in the state. Earlier on April 15, the grand old party released its third list introducing 16 fresh faces for the polls. Notably, the party also turned down the request of senior leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to contest from the second seat - Kolar.
The state will witness a single phase of voting on May 10, whereas, results will be declared on May 13. Notably, the term of the 224-member Karnataka Assembly will be ending on May 24. Speaking at the press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that more than 9.17 lakh first-time voters will be participating in the upcoming elections in Karnataka.