Karnataka Congress Forms Committees For 3 Bypoll Seats

BENGALURU:  President of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Thursday constituted supervisory committees for three assembly seats going for by-election. The three seats going for by-poll are Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur.

Channapatna assembly seat fell vacant after its MLA and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of Janata Dal Secular (JDS) resigned after he was elected to Lok Sabha from the Mandya parliamentary seat in the 2024 election. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly from Channapatna in 2023.

For the Channapatna seat, a committee is formed under Minister for Agriculture N. Chaluvarayaswamy which includes Minister for Transport Ramalinga Reddy, former Lok Sabha member D.K. Suresh, Magadi MLA Balakrishna, former minister and MLA Narendra Swami, Ramnagar MLA Iqbal Hussain, MLC S. Ravi and Ramnagar Congress president Gangdahar.

In Bengaluru, D.K. Shivakumar told reporters in Ramnagar district, e assembly seats have been won by Congress nominees in 2023 election and one seat (Channapatna) needs to be regained to make the Ramnagar district completely turn it into a Congress bastion.

Shivakumar, a MLA representing Kanakapura assembly seat is said to be front runner to contest Channapatna by-poll, said Congress nominee polled about 15,000 votes in 2023 assembly election in Channapatna seat and the votes tally in Channapatna seat went to 85,000 votes in Lok Sabha election this year. To a query on who will be the nominee, the KPCC Chief said that a decision will be taken by the party.

Shiggaon assembly seat in Haveri district is vacant following the resignation of former minister and MLA Basavaraj Bommai. He belongs to Bharatiya Janata Party. Bommai represented Shiggaon seat and resigned after he got elected to Lok Sabha from Havsri parliamentary seat. The supervisory committee for Shiggaon is headed by Minister for Forests and Environment Eshwar Khandre and five others are its members.

Similarly for the Sandur by-poll, Shivakumar made Minister for Housing Zameer Ahmed Khan as the head of the supervisory committee. Sandur assembly seat in Ballari fell vacant after its incumbent MLA E. Tukaram of the Congress party won Ballari Lok Sabha election. He retained the Lok Sabha post and resigned as an MLA paving way for a by-poll.