The Congress on Friday decided to field D K Suresh, brother of former Karnataka minister D K Shivakumar, from Bangalore Rural Parliamentary constituency, while Kannada actor Ramya is likely to enter the electoral battle for the party from the Mandya Lok Sabha segment.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka State Congress President G Parameshwara, who held a meeting with the party’s Karnataka in-charge general secretary Digvijay Singh here, submitted the names for clearance.

Though sources in the party said that both Suresh and Ramya will file nominations on Saturday, the last day for nominations, the party is yet to announce the candidates’ names officially.

For the Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha seat, the party recommended only D K Suresh’s name, while Ramya and former MLA L R Shivaramegowda had been recommended for the Mandya seat. Though Suresh’s name was approved by the party high command, for the Mandya constituency the party had asked State leaders to recommend only one name.

Ramya agreed to contest the poll, but she reportedly also requested the party high command to guarantee a ticket for her in the 2014 election irrespective of the outcome of the by-poll. Though the party did not promise anything, it is learnt that the leaders convinced Ramya to contest the by-poll.

Apart from Siddaramaiah, it is learnt that Ramya also has strong backing from former chief minister S M Krishna, former minister D K Shivakumar and housing minister Ambarish.

By-elections to Bangalore Rural and Mandya Lok Sabha constituencies will be held on August 21, and the counting will take place on August 24.

The by-poll was necessitated after H D Kumarawamy (Lok Sabha member from the Bangalore Rural constituency) and Chaluvarayaswamy (Lok Sabha member from the Mandya constituency) resigned from Parliament to contest assembly elections in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) on Friday decided to field Anitha Kumaraswamy, wife of the party’s State president H D Kumaraswamy, from Bangalore Rural constituency. The party nominee for Mandya constituency, C S Puttaraju, filed his nomination papers on Friday.

The BJP is understood to have entered into a tacit understanding with the JD-S for the bypoll. Accordingly, the party will not field its candidates in either constituency, to help the JD-S, which in turn will help the BJP in the coming by-elections to three Legislative Council seats.

Speaking to reporters, JD-S chief H D Deve Gowda said: “Anitha Kumarswamy will file nominations tomorrow (on Saturday). I will also accompany her. While we have not forged any alliance with any political party for the by-elections, the Left parties have expressed their interest in an alliance by writing us a letter of support.”

The Congress, on its part, has sought the support of Samajwadi Party MLA from Channapatna C P Yogeshwar in the by-poll to Bangalore rural seat.