Choksi’s lawyer out of Cong K’taka list

Bengaluru, April 22: The Congress on Sunday dropped its candidate for Madikeri, H. S. Chandramauli, who represented fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi as his lawyer and allotted a second constituency to chief minister Siddaramaiah, as it released the second and final list of nominees for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly polls.

The party also confirmed a ticket to sitting MLA N. A. Harris, who was embroiled in a controversy after his son was involved in a brawl at an upscale city pub- cumrestaurant recently, causing a major embarrassment to the ruling Congress ahead of the polls, with the opposition using the incident as a stick to beat it with.

His son, Mohammad Nalapad, is now in judicial custody in connection with the alleged brutal assault on a man, who was badly injured.

The Congress that had announced a list of 218 candidates in one go for the 224 member Karnataka legislative assembly on April 15, had kept the names of candidates for six seats on hold.

They included Sindgi, Nagathan, Kittur, Raichur, Shantinagar and Melukote constituencies.

Sunday’s list, while announcing candidates to all these seats, has replaced candidates in six other constituencies.

From Kittur, the party has fielded senior leader D. B. Inamdar, Vithal Dhonidiba Katakdhond from Nagthan, Mallanna Niganna Sali from Sindgi, Sayed Yasin from Raichur and N. A. Harris from Shantinagar.

According to party sources, the Congress is expected to support farmers’ leader the late Puttannaiah’s son Darshan Puttannaiah ( Swaraj India) in Melukote constituency.