Cong fields Geetha Shivarajkumar from Shimoga, renominates D K Suresh from Bangalore Rural
Bengaluru, Mar 8: D K Suresh (Bangalore Rural) and Kannada actor Shivarajkumar's wife Geetha Shivarajkumar (Shimoga) figure in the first list of seven candidates in Karnataka announced on Friday by the Congress for the coming Lok Sabha elections.
A three-time MP, Suresh is the brother of Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar and is the sitting member from Bangalore Rural. He was the only Congress candidate to win in the 2019 general elections in the State.
The other five candidates are: H R Algur (Bijapur), Anandswamy Gaddadevarmath (Haveri), S P Muddahanumegowda (Tumkur), Venkataramane Gowda (Mandya) and Shreyas M Patel (Hassan).
The party naming Geetha Shivarajkumar for the Shivamogga seat seems to have set the stage for an interesting battle in the home district of BJP veteran B S Yediyurappa.
Geetha, daughter of former Chief Minister late S Bangarappa, contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Shivamogga (Shimoga) on a Janata Dal (Secular) ticket and lost to Yediyurappa.
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The seat is currently held by Yediyurappa's son, B Y Raghavedra.
Geetha, sister of Karnataka Minister for School Education Madhu Bangarappa and daughter-in- law of Kannada thespian late Rajkumar, joined the Congress in April last year ahead of Assembly elections in Karnataka.
Venkataramane Gowda, also known as Star Chandru, is a contractor by profession. The Mandya seat is represented by Sumalatha Ambareesh, an independent backed by the BJP.
The Congress had denied renomination to Muddahanumegowda in the 2019 elections to make way for Congress-JD(S) alliance candidate H D Deve Gowda who, however, lost the polls. Muddahanumegowda officially joined the BJP in 2022 but kept a low profile. He returned to the Congress fold only last month.
"Congress has named candidates in segments where there was no confusion over the nominee," a party leader said.
The BJP-JD(S) combine is yet to come out with its list of candidates.
The BJP had swept the 2019 general elections, bagging 25 of the total 28 seats in the state, while an independent (Sumalatha Ambareesh) backed by the party had also emerged victorious.
The Congress and the JD(S), which were running a coalition government back then and fought the election together, had come a cropper winning just one seat each.
But the political scene has changed significantly since then; the Congress scored a thumping victory in the Assembly elections in May last year and now appears battle-ready, determined to put up a strong show in the Lok Sabha polls.
It is also a role reversal of sorts for JD(S) which joined the BJP-led NDA in September last year and wants to prove that it's still a force to reckon with, particularly in South Karnataka.
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Compromised PM didn't sign trade deal with US, but a bargain for Adani's release: Rahul
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of signing a trade deal with the US only to secure the "release" of billionaire businessman Gautam Adani.
"Compromised PM did not strike a trade deal, but a bargain for Adani's release," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X, after reports that the US has agreed to settle the lawsuit that accused Adani of hiding alleged bribery.
The US government has agreed to settle the lawsuit filed against Adani, who is accused of duping investors by concealing that his company's huge solar energy project in India was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme, according to court filings published Thursday.
Reacting to the reports, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said it was now clear why the PM agreed to the "hopelessly one-sided Indo-US trade deal that was really a steal by the US".
"And it is also clear why he abruptly halted Operation Sindoor on May 10, 2025, acting on President Trump's threats rather than on our national interest. Reportedly, the Trump Administration is about to drop all charges of corruption against Modani," he said on X.
"How much more compromised can the PM get?" Ramesh asked.
In the lawsuit filed in late 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani, who is a director at the group's renewable energy unit Adani Green Energy Ltd, of agreeing to pay about USD 265 million in bribes to Indian government officials between approximately 2020 and 2024 to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts on terms that expected to yield USD 2 billion of profit over 20 years.
It was alleged in the lawsuit that Adani Group raised USD 2 billion in loans and bonds, including from US firms, on the backs of false and misleading statements related to the firm's anti-bribery practices and policies.
The ports-to-energy conglomerate had denied the allegations.
