Congress bets on Shivakumar in Karnataka Assembly by-polls

Bengaluru: The opposition Congress is betting on the popularity of its trouble-shooter and senior leader D.K. Shivakumar to retain as many seats in Thursday’s by-elections in Karnataka’s 15 assembly segments, a party official said on Tuesday.

“Shivakumar is our star campaigner along with former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and party’s state unit president Dinesh Gundu Rao in wooing the electorate to win most assembly seats, especially in Bengaluru and the old Mysuru region where he has a lot of clouts,” Congress spokesman Ravi Gowda said.

The Congress is contesting in all the 15 assembly seats as the ruling BJP, while the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) is in the fray in only 12 seats, which makes the crucial by-polls a straight contest between the national parties in 3 seats and triangular in a dozen seats.

The BJP has fielded 14 of the defectors, including 11 from the Congress and 3 from the JD-S as its candidates to wrest as many of the 15 seats from both the opposition parties had won in the May 2018 Assembly elections in the southern state. (IANS)

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