All seven candidates of three major political parties — BJP, Congress, and JD(S) — have filed their nomination papers on Thursday for elections to the State Legislative Council from the Legislative Assembly constituency.
In total, nine candidates have filed papers. Thursday was the last day for filing nomination papers.
Four BJP candidates — two former Ministers N. Nagaraju and R. Shankar, former MLA Sunil Vallyapure, and former Dakshina Kannada district president Pratap Simha Nayak — have filed their nomination papers in the presence of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and other party leaders.
AICC general secretary and Rajya Sabha member B.K. Hariprasad and MLC Naseer Ahmed of the Congress filed their papers in the presence of Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah and KPCC president-designate D.K. Shivakumar.
Accompanied by former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and other party leaders, Govindaraju of the JD(S) filed his papers.
With no major political parties fielding an additional candidate, all seven candidates are expected to be elected unopposed.
Yadavanahalli Krishne Gowda filed nomination papers as an Independent candidate. Mandikal Nagaraj has filed papers as BJP candidate but has not produced ‘A’ and ‘B’ forms of the party. Papers of both candidates are likely to be rejected during the scrutiny since they have not been signed by MLAs of any political parties while filing nominations.
Elections are necessitated following the scheduled retirement of seven elected MLCs on June 30. The ruling BJP with its 117 members would ensure victory of all its four candidates, while the Opposition Congress (68 MLAs) and JD(S) (34 MLAs) would ensure victory of two and one candidate, respectively.
