Congress on Tuesday night put up former Karnataka chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde's daughter to take on Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy as the party announced a second list of candidates for next month's assembly elections in the state.
Mamta Nichani has been fielded from Ramanagaram constituency where Kumaraswamy, former chief minister, has filed his nominations for the first phase of the poll.
Prominent among the list of 63 candidates are three senior JD-S leaders including M P Prakash, former home minister, who had switched over to Congress recently.
Prakash has been nominated in Harapanathalli constituency while the other two former JD-S leaders Amaregowda Bayyapur and Anil Lad, a mine owner, have been given tickets to contest from Kushtagi and Bellary city constituencies.
Kumar Bangarappa, son of former chief minister and Karnataka Samajwadi Party chief S Bangarappa, and former Industry minister R V Deshpande have also got Congress nominations to fight from Sorab and Haliyal respectively.
The nomination to Kumar Bangarappa could pave the way for an alliance between Congress and Samajwadi Party in the elections as it satisfies the demand by the senior Bangarppa for such a tie-up.
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