Janata Dal (Secular) supremo HD Deve Gowda on Tuesday announced that the wife of late party legislator B Sathyanarayana, Ammajamma, will be the party's candidate for the bye-elections to the Sira Assembly constituency. Announcing the candidate, Deve Gowda said that the party will face the bye-polls unitedly.
The bye-poll is necessitated following the death of JD(S) legislator B Sathyanarayana in August.
Sira in Tumakuru district, along with Rajarajeshwari Nagar (R R Nagar) segment in Bengaluru, will go to the bye-polls on November 3, for which the election notification will be issued on October 9. The last date for filing nominations is October 16 and counting of votes will take place on November 10.
The Congress has already announced that it will be fielding former Minister TB Jayachandra as the party candidate from Sira. Jayachandra had represented the constituency twice in 2008 and 2013, by defeating Sathyanarayana, who, in turn, had defeated him in the 2018 Assembly polls.
The Congress and JD(S) are traditional rivals for the Sira seat, which the BJP has never won. If BJP fields a strong candidate, the bye-election is likely to see a three-way contest. The saffron party is yet to announce its candidate for the seat, and the state leadership has sent its recommendations to the party high command.
Recently, several local leaders and workers from Sira, including Dr CM Rajesh Gowda, whose name is doing the rounds in the party circles as the probable candidate, joined the BJP. Dr Rajesh is a radiologist and son of Congress leader CP Mudalagiriyappa, who represented the Chitradurga Lok Sabha constituency, under which the Sira Assembly segment is located.
Dr Rajesh Gowda is among the three names under consideration by the BJP for the bye-polls.
All the three parties are also yet to announce their candidates for the RR Nagar Assembly constituency.
JDS(S) has shortlisted three probable candidates for the seat — party city unit chief R Praksah, RR Nagar president Bettaswamy Gowda and a leader from the Jnananbharathi ward Krishnamurthy.
Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah has said that the party is set to field H Kusuma, the wife of late IAS officer DK Ravi, after she joined the party recently.
The BJP is likely to field N Munirathna, whose disqualification has necessitated the bye-polls for the seat. He had defected from the Congress to the BJP.