President of Udupi Block Congress Committee Pramod Madhwaraj released the first list of 28 Congress candidates for the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) elections here on Thursday.
Only three members of the previous council have been repeated in the list. They are Meenakshi Bannanje, Janaki Shettigar and Amrita Acharya.
Mr. Madhwaraj said that the Congress would make the corruption that prevailed in the Udupi CMC under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule a major issue in the civic election. “The Congress will aim at providing a corruption-free and pro-people administration. We will soon release our manifesto for the CMC. It will be a very good manifesto,” he said.
Mr. Madhwaraj said that the Congress would win 20 seats in the Udupi CMC. (The CMC has 35 seats). The Congress workers had decided the candidates for all the wards. “We will release the second list of Congress candidates shortly,” he said.
Asked if the Udupi CMC election results would have any bearing on the prospects of the Udupi Assembly constituency as Assembly elections were approaching, Mr. Madhwaraj said that the Assembly elections were fought on other issues. But there was a trend in the favour of the Congress. It would reflect in the elections, he said.
On whether the Janata Dal (Secular) leader U.R. Sabhapathi would rejoin the Congress, Mr. Madhwaraj said that the High Command would decide on the issue at an appropriate time.
Congress leaders B. Narasimha Murthy, Diwakar Kundar, Bhaskarrao Kediyur and Kushal Shetty were present.
