Congress releases third list with 43 candidates' names
Senior Congress leader and former Governor Margaret Alva's son, Nivedith Alva, will contest from Kumta constituency
Mangaluru: Congress has named Laxman Savadi, who was inducted into the party on Friday, as the candidate for the Athani constituency.
His name is in the third list of candidates comprising 43 names released on Saturday.
This sets the stage for an interesting fight between Savadi and Mahesh Kumathalli, who will be facing each other for the third time, with the previous two elections seeing Savadi as the BJP candidate and Kumathalli as the Congress candidate.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former Governor Margaret Alva's son, Nivedith Alva, will contest from the Kumta constituency.
Nivedith had previously served as the Chairman of the Coastal Development Authority.
The Congress expects to make a comeback in the constituency, which was won by the BJP in the last election.
Meanwhile, actress Umashree, a close aide of Siddaramaiah, has been denied a ticket. She had previously won the Terdal constituency in 2013 and served as a minister in Siddaramaiah's government, but lost the 2018 election. Despite being a prominent contender, the party has decided to field Siddappa Ramappa Konnur instead.
In Mangalore City South constituency too, Siddaramaiah's close aide and KPCC Vice President Ivan D'Souza, who was a prominent contender has not been fielded. Instead, former MLA JR Loboy will contest as a Congress candidate.