NCP fields 9 candidates, including ex-BJP MLC

The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday said it has fielded nine candidates in the upcoming Karnataka assembly elections, where the BJP, Congress and the JD(S) are locked in a triangular contest.
The NCP has fielded Uttam Patil from Nippani assembly segment in Belgavi district, a region with dominant Marathi-speaking population, where it had actively participated in the agitation against the desecration of a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
It has fielded Masoor Saheb Bilagi from Devar Hippargi, Zameer Ahmad Inamdar (Baswan Bagewadi), Kulappa Chavan (Nagthan), R Hari (Yelburga), R Shankar (Ranebennur), K Suguna (Hagaribommanahalli), SYM Masood Foujdar (Virajpet) and Rehana Bano (Narsimharaja).
Hari is the President of the NCP’s Karnataka unit and Shankar a BJP MLC who quit the party after being denied ticket to contest the May 10 elections.  Elected as the lone MLA of Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) from Ranebennur constituency in 2018, Shankar later joined the Congress.
However, he withdrew his support to Congress-JD(S) coalition government led by then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, when a few MLAs from both parties resigned. He was then disqualified considering the fact that he was a Congress member. Shankar joined the BJP and was elected to the Legislative Council.  Shankar quit the BJP and as MLC after being denied the party ticket to contest the 10 May assembly elections.
NCP’s decision to field candidates in Karnataka is seen as an attempt to regain the national party status it had to forego due to its depleted political fortunes in states such as Goa, Meghalaya and Manipur.