BENGALURU: As many as 121 candidates filed their nomination papers on the last day on Tuesday, for the Legislative Council polls for 25 seats which will be held on December 10. According to the state Chief Electoral Officer, a total of 215 sets of nominations were filed by 119 male and two female candidates.
Members from local bodies — town and gram panchayats, municipalities and city corporations -- will elect candidates. The BJP has already started its campaign by launching the Jan Swaraj Yathra and party leaders have been holding conventions at all districts since last week.
The BJP has fielded 57 candidates, the Congress 56 and the JDS 17. Apart from them, there are 68 independent candidates as well as from the Aam Aadmi Party, JDU, Karnataka Rashtra Samithi, Social Democratic Party of India and other minor parties.
Many of the candidates are related to MLAs and ministers. In Dharwad, KPCC working president Saleem Ahmed is contesting against Pradeep Shettar, brother of former chief minister Jagadish Shettar. Ahmed played a major role in the recent Hanagal bypoll where Congress candidate Srinivas Mane won in Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s home district Haveri. Mane was an MLC earlier.
The BJP’s Chief Whip Mahantesh Kavatagimutt is contesting against Congress MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar’s brother Channaraj Hattiholi from Belagavi. The Upper House has a strength of 75 members. At present, the BJP has 32 members, Congress 29 and JDS 12 with one Independent. After the death of JDS MLC Dharmegowda last year, the seat fell vacant.
The elections are being held for two seats each from the local body constituencies of Vijayapura, Belagavi, Dharwad, Dakshina Kannada and Mysuru, and one each from Bidar, Kalaburagi, Uttara Kannada, Raichur, Ballari, Chitradurga, Shivamogga, Chikkamagalur, Hassan, Tumakuru, Mandya, Bengaluru, Bengaluru Rural, Kolar and Kodagu.