Karnataka Bengaluru 07/10/2020 Kusuma , Congress candidate for Raja Rejeshwari Nagar ( R R Nagar ) by election

The Opposition Congress has fielded veteran leader and former Minister T.B. Jayachandra and political novice Kusuma H., wife of late IAS officer D.K. Ravi, as the party candidates for byelections to Sira and Rajarajeshwarinagar Assembly constituencies scheduled on November 3.

Ramesh Babu, former MLC, who recently quit the JD(S) and joined the Congress, is the nominee of the party for the South East Graduates Constituency of the Legislative Council, for which elections will be held on October 28.

All India Congress Committee interim president Sonia Gandhi cleared the names of all three candidates on Wednesday.

T. B. Jayachandra

While Mr. Jayachandra and Ms. Kusuma belong to the Vokkaliga community, Mr. Babu is from the Balija community.

Eye on women, youth

R.R. Nagar candidate Ms. Kusuma, a postgraduate in engineering in Information Technology from a university in the U.S., is expected to attract women and young voters. She was a lecturer in Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bengaluru.

Ms. Kusuma stepped into the political arena only on Sunday last when she and father Hanumantharayappa joined the Congress. Mr. Hanumantharayappa was in the JD(S) for a long time.

It will be a straight fight here between the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress. A sizeable chunk of Vokkaliga voters are expected to back Ms. Kusuma. Her father would manage the wherewithal of the campaign, say Congress sources.

The BJP is expected to field Munirathna, two-time MLA, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP along with 13 other MLAs in 2019. Mr. Munirathna is known to have developed a good network and sanctioned big funds for developmental work in the constituency. He defeated BJP candidate Muniraju Gowda in the 2018 Assembly elections with a margin of over 25,000 votes.

In politics since ’70s

The bypoll in Sira was necessitated following the death of B. Sathyanarayana, JD(S) MLA. Congress nominee Mr. Jayachandra, 71, who had served as Minister in the S.M. Krishna-led and Siddaramaiah-led governments, had lost to Sathyanarayana by a margin of 10,365 votes in the 2018 elections. S.R. Gowda of the BJP secured third place with 16,959 votes (9.41% of votes). The former law Minister, who won six Assembly elections, was first elected to the Assembly in 1978.

Triangular contest

In a likely triangular contest in Sira, the Congress has formed a committee headed by former Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee chief and former Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, MLA, and K.N. Rajanna, former MLA.