BENGALURU: Congress denied ticket to former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah from Kolar. The party chose Kothur G Manjunath instead. Congress has announced candidates for 43 constituencies including this one. This is the third list of candidates released by the Congress.

There were reports that Siddaramaiah was pressuring the party to contest from Kolar apart from Varuna assembly constituency. Senior leaders DK Shivakumar and D Parameshwara opposed it. Congress is yet to announce candidates for 15 seats.

The seats of prominent leaders were announced in the first phase list.

Siddaramaiah will contest from Varuna, DK Shivakumar from Kanakapura, G Parameshwara from Koratagere, MB Patil from Babaleshwar and Dinesh Gundu Rao from Gandhi Nagar constituencies respectively.