Congress to contest from Bangalore North

Bengaluru, March 25 (IANS) The Congress will contest from the Bangalore North Lok Sabha constituency on April 18 as ally Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) has decided not to field its candidate, a JD-S official said on Monday.

"Our party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda has conveyed to senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel that the JD-S will not contest from Bangalore North and the Congress is free to field its candidate," JD-S spokesman Ramesh Babu told IANS here.

As part of the seat-sharing arrangement between the two parties, the Congress will contest in 21 Lok Sabha seats, instead of 20, and the JD-S in seven, instead of eight.

"Of the 28 parliamentary constituencies, we are contesting in one-third (7), while the Congress will contest in three-fourth (21)," said Babu, declining to give the reason for his party's decision.

Congress general secretary and party's state in-charge K.C. Venugopal said his party was thankful to Deve Gowda and the JD-S for its gesture. "Together let us all reclaim democracy," he tweeted.

The BJP has re-nominated Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda from Bangalore North.

The Bharatiya Janata Party ((BJP) is contesting 27 of the 28 seats and supporting multi-lingual actor and Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh from the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency.

"We have announced candidates for six seats and will soon select the name for the seventh seat (Bijapur) in the northern region where polling is in the second phase," said Babu.

Of the six named candidates, Deve Gowda is contesting from Tumkur, while his grandsons Prajwal and Nikhil are in the fray from Hassan and Mandya.

The other three are Madhu Bangarappa from Shimoga, Pramod Madhavaraj from Udupi-Chikmagalur and Anand Asnotikar from Karwar off the western coast.

Polling in Karnataka will be held in two phases -- 14 seats in the southern and central regions on April 18, and the remaining 14 in the coastal and northern regions on April 23.

The votes will be counted on May 23.