The Congress on Monday selected Manjunath Bhandary as its candidate for the December 10 elections to the Legislative Council from the local authorities’ constituency of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. He will file his nomination papers in the office of Deputy Commissioner here on Tuesday. It is a dual-member constituency.
Earlier, Mr. Bhandary had contested unsuccessfully against B.S. Yediyurappa of the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Shivamogga constituency.
Mr. Bhandary is the founder of the Bhandary Foundation which manages the Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management at Adyar. He hails from Tenka Belluru village in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada. Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee president and MLC K. Harish Kumar told The Hindu that the Congress has its 1,880 votes of the total 3,600 votes in the twin districts. It will fall short of 125 votes to win a seat. “We are confident that the shortage will be met through the second preferential votes,” he said.
With the choice of Mr. Bhandary, the Congress has chosen to field a new face from the constituency which is now being represented by K. Pratapchandra Shetty, a former banker from Halady village in Kundapur taluk in Udupi district, from the party.
Mr. Shetty, a former Chairman of the Legislative Council, is a three-time MLC and was a four-time MLA. He represented Kundapur constituency in the 1983, the 1985, the 1989, and the 1994 Assemblies on the Congress ticket.
Meanwhile, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) said in a statement on Monday that it has chosen Shafi Bellare as its candidate to contest from the constituency.
November 23 is the last date for filing nominations which will be scrutinised on November 24.
