The Karnataka BJP on Tuesday announced Rajesh Gowda and Munirathna as the party's candidates in the upcoming bye-elections in Sira and RR Nagar constituencies respectively.
Dr. Rajesh Gowda, a radiologist recently joined the BJP in Tumakuru while Munirathna joined the party in 2019 after defecting from the Congress.
The by-election in RR Nagar has been necessitated by the resignation of then Congress MLA Munirathna, who jumped ship to the BJP. The bypoll in Sira is being held following the death of JD(S) legislator B Satyanarayana on August 5 after prolonged illness.
The bypoll in RR Nagar could not be held on December 5, 2019 along with by-elections in 15 assembly segments across the state, as its result in the May 2018 assembly polls was challenged in the Karnataka High Court by its BJP runner-up Muniraju Gowda on alleged electoral malpractice by Munirathna.
The court disposed off the case in favour of Munirathna in February and then by the Supreme Court on Tuesday following which Munirathna was given the ticket by the party to contest in the bye-elections.
Congress has fielded former Minister TB Jayachandra from Sira while picking a fresh face - Kusuma H, an assistant professor at an engineering college and wife of IAS officer D K Ravi, who died in March, 2015, from RR Nagar.
The then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of the Congress directed the CBI to probe Ravi's death after allegations that Congress MLAs had harassed the officer. The probe in its closure report stated that Ravi had ended his own life.
JD(S) has already announced that the wife of late MLA Sathyanarayana Ammajamma will be the party's candidate in Sira.