india

Updated: Nov 18, 2019 16:07 IST

The Congress has fielded its star spokesperson Gourav Vallabh in Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das’s bastion of Jamshedpur East. Vallabh was among the two candidates Congress named for the Jharkhand assembly elections late Saturday night along with six candidates for Karnataka by-polls.

Voting for 17 seats in Karnataka by-polls will take place on December 5 while Jharkhand will vote in seven phases between November 30 and December 20.

Gourav Vallabh, who has earned fame for political debates on television, is also a professor at Jamshedpur’s Xavier School of Management (XLRI). CM Raghubar Das has won five consecutive terms from Jamshedpur East.

Congress also named Mamata Devi as its candidate from Ramgarh assembly seat in Jharkhand. Elections to Jamshedpur East will be held in the second phase on December 7 and Ramgarh will vote in the third phase on December 12.

In Karnataka, the party is fielding Rizwan Arshad from Shivajinagar, Gajanan Balachandra Mangasuli from Athani, Lakhan Jarkhiholi from Gokak, Bharamagouda Alagouda Kade from Kagwad, Venkatrao Ghorpade from Vijayanagara and KB Chandrasekhar from Krishnarajpet constituency.

Arshad had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from the Bangalore Central constituency against the BJP’s PC Mohan.

The bypolls in Karnataka were necessitated due to disqualification of 17 rebel MLAs of the JDS-Congress. The Supreme Court this week upheld their expulsion but allowed them to contest in the upcoming by-polls.

The BJP has fielded 13 of the 17 rebel MLAs.