Congress suspends five rebel candidates

The Karnataka Congress has suspended five rebels who contested as independent candidates against the party’s candidates in the MLC elections.

In a statement, the party said it had suspended SP Dinesh (Shivamogga), Fernandes Lawrence (Bengaluru), BR Nanjesh (Chikkamagaluru), Lokesh Talikatte (Chitradurga) and Vinod Shivaraj from Bengaluru for six years for anti-party activities.

All five have nominated themselves as rebels for the Legislative Council elections scheduled for June 3 in the teachers’ and graduates’ constituencies.

Meanwhile, sources in the Congress said that the chief minister, deputy chief minister and other senior politicians will fly to Delhi on May 28 and 29 to decide on the MLC tickets.