Karnataka bypolls: 16 candidates withdraw, 34 in fray including two Cong. rebels

A total of 16 candidates — 11 from Davangere South and 5 from Bagalkot Assembly constituency — withdrew their nominations before the deadline on Thursday. That has left 9 candidates in the fray in the byelection to the Bagalkot Assembly constituency and 25 candidates in the Davangere South Assembly constituency. That includes two Congress rebel candidates, namely Sadiq Pahilwan and H. Subhan Sab.

The Congress delegation led by Saleem Ahmed and Rizwan Ahmed which reached Davangere bit late on Thursday, made futile attempt to convince rebel candidate Sadiq Pahilwan to withdraw from the contest. In a related development, KPCC has expelled the other rebel H. Subhan Sab, Davangere district president of Labour wing, from the party for six years taking exception to his ‘derogatory’ remarks against the party and senior party leaders.

The bypolls have been necessitated following the demise of former Ministers H.Y. Meti and Shamanur Shivashankarappa.

16 candidates had filed nomination papers for the byelection to Bagalkot Assembly constituency and during scrutiny the nominations of two candidates were rejected. In Davangere South, 39 candidates had filed nomination papers of which the nominations of three were rejected.

In Bagalkot, those in fray include Umesh Hullappa Meti of the Congress and Veeranna Charantimath of the BJP, along with Karnataka Rashtra Samiti candidate Nagaraj Kalakutagar, Anthosh Savvase of Uttam Prajakeeya Party and four independents.

According to an official release, 11 independent candidates withdrew their nominations on Thursday.

Muslim candidates

In all, 22 Muslim candidates, the highest from the community so far, had filed their nomination papers in Davangere South, of which one nomination was rejected. Now, although eight Muslim candidates have withdrawn from contest, there are still 13 in the fray along with 12 others.

Former Minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa’s grandson Samarth Mallikarjun is the Congress candidate here, while BJP has fielded Srinivas T. Dasakariyappa.

Polling is scheduled for April 9.