Congress fields Hariprasad from Bengaluru South

Congress on Sunday fielded senior leader B K Hariprasad from Bengaluru South Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka as the party released its ninth list of candidates for the upcoming elections.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti will contest from Sivaganga seat, while Tariq Anwar, who quit the NCP to return to the Congress, will be in the fray from Katihar in Bihar.

In Maharashtra, AICC General Secretary Mukul Wasnik and AICC in-charge of Gujarat Rajeev Satav have opted out of the Lok Sabha contest.

Former IAS officer Kishor Gajbhiye will contest from Wasnik’s Ramtek Lok Sabha seat, while former Shiv Sena leader Subhash Wankhede has been fielded from Hingoli.

Satav had defeated Wankhede in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by a margin of over 1632 votes.

Hariprasad had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election from Bengaluru South against Ananth Kumar in 1999.

Kumar had first won the seat in 1996 never lost it, making the constituency a BJP bastion.

BJP is yet to announce its candidate for Bengaluru South. Late Ananth Kumar’s wife Tejaswini has expressed her keenness to fight from this segment.

Congress also changed its candidate for the Chandrapur Lok Sabha seat, which was at a centre of a controversy. Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan was unhappy over the decision to field Vinayak Bangade.

Suresh Dhanorkar will be the Congress candidate from Chandrapur in place of Bangade.

In Purina, Uday Singh, the sitting BJP MP who quit the party earlier this week, will be the Congress candidate.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi addressed a rally in Purnia on Friday.

Senior leader Hidayat Patel will contest from Akola in Maharashtra, while Haji Farooq Mir will be in the fray from Baramulla in J&K.