Cong names candidates for 18 out of 20 seats in K'taka

In a late Saturday night announcement, the Congress announced candidates for 18 out of 20 Lok Sabha seats it will contest in Karnataka, renominating nine incumbents along with some fresh faces. 

The Congress has not declared a candidate for the Bangalore South seat, amid concerns that the party lacked a strong contender in this BJP bastion. Curiously, even the BJP has not declared its candidate for Bangalore South, where incumbent (late) Ananthkumar's wife Tejaswini is tipped to get the ticket. 

The Congress has also not declared the Dharwad seat, where the BJP has renominated its incumbent Prahallad Joshi. 

As part of its pre-poll alliance with the JD(S), the Congress will contest from 20 seats, conceding the remaining eight to the regional party. 

Only two sitting members of the Karnataka Assembly have been given the Lok Sabha ticket - Eshwar Khandre (Bidar) and Shamanur Shivashankarappa (Davangere). Both candidates belong to the Lingayat community that is dominant in the two seats. The party is banking on the Lingayat card in Belgaum as well by fielding Virupakshi S Sadhunnavar. 

The only Muslim candidate in the list is Rizwan Arshad for Bangalore Central. 

The party has also chosen to field some fresh faces - Veena Kashappanavar (Bagalkot), DR Patil (Haveri) and Mithun Rai (Dakshina Kannada). 

The list: 
Chikkodi - Prakash Hukkeri
Raichur - BV Nayak
Bellary - VS Ugrappa
Chitradurga - BN Chandrappa
Chikkaballapur - M Veerappa Moily
Kolar - V Muniyappa
Gulbarga - Mallikarjun Kharge
Chamarajanagar - R Dhruvanarayana
Bangalore Rural - DK Suresh
Davangere - Shamanur Shivashankarappa 
Bangalore Central - Rizwan Arshad
Bidar - Eshwar Khandre
Mysore - CH Vijayashankar
Belgaum - Virupakshi S Sadhunnavar  
Bagalkot - Veena Kashappanavar
Koppal - Rajashekar Hitnal
Haveri - DR Patil
Dakshina Kannada - Mithun Rai