RR Nagar bypolls: Late IAS officer DK Ravi’s wife Kusuma to contest on Cong ticket?

Team Udayavani, Sep 30, 2020, 3:03 PM IST

Bengaluru: Late IAS officer DK Ravi’s wife Kusuma is likely to contest the upcoming bypoll elections from RR Nagar constituency on a Congress ticket.

On Tuesday, the Election Commission announced that bypolls to RajaRajeswari Nagar and Shira assembly seats in Karnataka will be held on November 3.

The bypolls had been necessitated in Sira following the death of B Sathyanarayana (JDS) last month, while the Rajarajeshwari Nagar seat fell vacant following the disqualification of Congress MLA N Munirathna under the anti- defection law last year.

Congress has already announced that it will be fielding former Minister T B Jayachandra as party candidate from Sira. Former Magadi MLA HC Balakrishna, late IAS officer DK Ravi’s father-in-law Hanumantharayappa and Bengaluru North Congress president Rajkumar M are said to be in the race for the Rajarajeshwarinagar ticket.

However, it is now learnt that the party has decided to field Kusuma, a Vokkaliga from the constituency.

Vokkaligas form a dominant vote bank in both the assembly seats and, the Congress is said to have taken the decision considering this equation.

Meanwhile the ruling BJP is likely to give ticket to Munirathna, keeping up its promise to field disqualified Congress-JD(S) legislators who had played a key role in the party coming to power.