Cong's 4th list out, Shettar fielded from his traditional seat

With just two days left for filing of nominations to end for May 10 assembly polls in Karnataka, the Congress on Tuesday announced its fourth list of seven candidates, confirming the ticket to former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who joined the party after quitting Bharatiya Janata Party.

Shettar has been given the ticket from Hubli-Dharwad-Central Assembly segment which he currently represents.

A senior Lingayat leader from north Karnataka region, who had also served as state BJP president, Leader of Opposition, Speaker and minister in the past, the six-time MLA had joined Congress on Monday, after quitting the BJP over being denied the ticket to contest the Assembly polls.

Congress has fielded H D Thammaiah, who recently quit BJP and joined the party, from Chikkamagaluru, where the ruling party's national general secretary C T Ravi is in the fray.

From Shiggaon, where Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is the BJP candidate, Congress has fielded Mohammed Yousuf Savanur.

Sitting MLA Durgappa S Hoolageri has been fielded from Lingsugur, while in Harihar sitting MLA S Ramappa has been denied the ticket and it has been given to Nandagavi Srinivas.

Other candidates named in the fourth list are Deepak Chinchore (Hubli-Dharwad-West) and M A Gopalaswamy (Shravanabelagola).

With the addition of seven names and the first three list of 124, 42 and 43 candidates respectively (including in Melukote where it's backing a candidate of a different party), the Congress has so far announced candidates for 216 out of total 224 seats.

Meanwhile, Shettar on Tuesday blamed BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh for rejecting his plea for a ticket in the poll-bound state a day after quitting the party and joined the Congress.

"When there was a possibility of winning with maximum votes, the question emerged why the ticket was denied. What I saw was, the person whom people respect and call him Santhosh ji, it's B L Santhosh, who is the root cause of all this," Shettar said in a press conference in Hubballi.

Explaining further, Shettar said he fell victim to the game played against him and added the ticket that was announced in his favour was taken back later, he charged.

He claimed that in the 2018 assembly election, Channappa Nimbannanavar was a strong contender from Kalghatgi constituency in Dharwad district but the local leaders revolted.

Stating that Santhosh has many 'Maanas Putras' (a person who is treated like a son), Shettar said: "This Maanas Putra (Mahesh Tenginkai) started a whispering campaign with his disciples against me for the past six to seven months."