Karwar (DHNS): The Congress has announced candidates for three of the six Assembly constituencies of Uttara Kannada in the first phase. With this, it has kept alive the suspense of who will be the candidate for the remaining three seats.

In the first phase, it has announced the candidates of Haliyal, Karwar and Bhatkal constituencies.

As per the list, sitting MLA R V Deshpande will recontest from Haliyal, former MLA Satish Sail from Karwar and former MLA Mankal Vaidya from Bhatkal.

Old horse

A seven-time MLA, R V Deshpande is all set to contest the Assembly elections for the 9th time. He will be contesting as a Congress candidate for the sixth time.

Satish Sail had contested the 2009 by-election and 2019 election as a Congress candidate from Karwar constituency. In 2013, he contested as an independent candidate and became an MLA. This time, he will be contesting as a Congress candidate for the third time.

Mankal Vaidya contested the 2013 election as an independent and got elected as an MLA from Bhatkal constituency. In 2019 election, he contested as a Congress candidate but faced defeat. However, Congress has given him a second opportunity this time.

Party politics

Getting a party ticket was not a cakewalk for R V Deshpande this time. Haliyal constituency was expecting stiff competition within the Congress last year. S L Ghotnekar, a two-time MLC, put all his might to get Congress candidature. He even spoke about this openly. But later he joined the JD(S) making way for R V Deshpande to contest for the ninth time.

In Karwar, there were allegations that Satish Sail was staying away from party activities. Thus, Zilla Panchayat member Chaitra Kotharakar was gearing up to get the party’s candidature. There were also rumors that Sail would once again contest as an independent. Thus, there was curiosity among people as to who could be the Congress candidate in the constituency.

Political analysts had expected that Mankal Vaidya who had won from the Bhatkal constituency as an independent candidate would once again contest as an independent this time. Vaidya had maintained a distance from party activities and this move had created confusion in political circles. This had given rise to anticipations that former MLA J D Naik was the major aspirant for Congress ticket. But finally, the party has cleared the air of confusion.