Bengaluru, Nov 1 (TIWN) The opposition Congress on Thursday announced names of 8 candidates for 15 Karnataka by-elections, to be held on December 5 and results would be declared on December 9.

"Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi has approved names of 8 candidates for the ensuing by-elections in Karnataka," said Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik in a statement in New Delhi.  "The candidates for the remaining seven seats will be announced in due course," a party spokesman told IANS here.  The selected candidates are: Bhimmanna Naik (Yellapur), B.H. Bannikod (Hirekerur), K.B. Koliwad (Rannebennur), M. Anjanappa (Chikkaballapur), M. Narayanswamy (K.R. Pura), M. Shivaraj (Mahalakshmi Layout), Padmavathi Suresh (Hoskote) and H.P. Manjunath (Hunsur).  The by-elections have been necessitated due to resignation of 14 Congress and 3 Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) rebel legislators and their subsequent disqualification by former Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar for defying the anti-defection law.  By-elections for Maski (reserved) seat in the North Raichur district and R.R. Nagar seat in Bengaluru southwest are not being held as results from there in the May 2018 polls were challenged in the Karnataka High Court and the outcome is pending. 

The Congress and the JD-S expelled the disqualified MLAs after they moved the Supreme Court in July challenging their disqualification.  The allies of the coalition, which ran the government for 14 months till it collapsed on July 23 after Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy resigned following defeat in the trust vote, have decided to contest by-elections separately.  The by-elections were to be held on October 21, but the Election Commission postponed them on September 27 to December 5 as the joint petitions of the disqualified members were pending in the apex court.  The Congress also announced names of R.M Kuberappa and Sharanappa Mattur to contest the biennial elections to the state legislative council from the Karnataka West Graduates'' constituency and Karnataka North East Teachers'' constituency, respectively.  According to Gadag municipal commissioner Mansur Ali Khan, election dates to the legislative council seats are yet to be notified.