On Thursday, the Congress announced candidates for two Assembly seats where bypolls will be held on April 17, while the JD(S) announced for one seat.
The Congress announced names of Mallamma, wife of the former MLA late Narayan Rao, and Basavanagoud R. Turvihal for Basavakalyan and Maski Legislative Assembly constituencies, respectively.
Mr. Turvihal quit the BJP and joined the Congress recently. In the 2018 Assembly polls, Mr. Turvihal, who was contesting on the BJP ticket, lost to the then Congress candidate Prathapgouda Patil by a slender margin. Mr. Patil later joined the BJP and this caused the byelection.
The party high command also named the candidature of Ashok Managuli for the Sindagi constituency but the Election Commission of Indian has not yet announced the bypoll here. Mr. Ashok Managoli, son of the former MLA late M.C. Managoli. M.C. Managuli of the JD(S) died in January.
State Congress leaders are expected to meet on Saturday to finalise the candidate for the Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency byelection.
Setting to rest speculation over fielding candidates for the byelections, Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Thursday announced that the party would contest in Maski and Basavakalyan, while decision on contesting in Belagavi bypoll would be made in a couple of days. He announced Syed Yasrab Ali Qadri, a former Congressman, as the party candidate in Basavakalyan. Candidate for Maski would be announced in a day or two.
Confusing signals had come from the JD(S) over the last two months, with party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda stating that the party would not contest elections while Mr. Kumaraswamy had maintained that the party was yet to decide.
