Congress announces candidates for June 13 MLC polls

Bengaluru: The Congress party on Sunday disclosed its list of seven candidates for the biennial MLC elections set for June 13, necessitated by the impending retirement of 11 members on June 17.

As anticipated, the lineup includes Karnataka Science and Technology Minister N S Boseraju and Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah, son of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Other notable candidates are Vasanth Kumar, K Govindraj, Ivan D’Souza, Bilkis Bano, and Jagdev Guttedar.

Additionally, Basanagouda Badarli has been nominated for the upcoming MLC by-election to occupy a seat vacated by former chief minister Jagadish Shettar. Shettar briefly joined Congress after defecting from the BJP upon being denied a ticket for the 2023 assembly election.

Although the dates for this by-election have yet to be announced, a Congress leader told PTI, ‘The election dates to fill that post have not been announced yet but our party has declared him as our candidate whenever the election takes place.’

Shettar ran for the 2023 assembly election on a Congress ticket. Following his defeat, he was rewarded with an MLC seat by his new party. Earlier this year, he rejoined BJP and is now contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha election from Belgaum (Belagavi) constituency against Congress’s Mrinal Hebbalkar, the son of Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar.