Stage set for electoral battle

Three independent candidates have withdrawn papers on the last day for withdrawing their nomination papers yesterday. With this, stage is set for the remaining dozen candidates to battle for votes in the next fortnight in the Mysore parliamentary constituency.

Picture is similar in the Mandya parliamentary constituency where 12 candidates are in the fray after 10 Independents withdrew. In the neighbouring Chamarajanagar reserve constituency, 14 candidates will vie following the withdrawal of an independent candidate and the nomination papers of another candidate was rejected.

In Mysore, four candidates are from the recognised national and State level parties. They are B A Jivijaya (Janata Dal-S), C H Vijayashankar (BJP), H Viswanath (Congress) and Sayid Nijam Ali (Bahujan Samajwadi Party). Another four are from the registered political parties. They are Arshadulla Sharief (Bharatiya Praja Paksha), E Keshamma (Rashtreeya Dehat Morcha Party), P Parashivamurthy (Rashtriya Krantikari Samajwadi Party), and M Leelavathi (Pyramid Party of India). The remaining four are Independents: Rafiq, P N Srinath, M V Santosh Kumar, and P Santosh Kumar.

Eight candidates in Mandya belong to political parties. They are Ambarish (Congress), M Krishnamurthy (BSP), N Chaluvarayaswamy (JD-S), L R Shivarame Gowda (BJP), Kowdle Channappa (Janata Dal-U), Johnson Chinnappan (PMK), K S Puttannaiah (Sarvodaya Karnataka Party), and H S Ramanna (Pyramid Party of India). S Balasubramanyan, R Venkatesh, Shakuntala and Shambulinge Gowda are in fray as Independents.

R Dhruvanarayan (Congress), A R Krishnamurthy (BJP), Kote M Shivanna (JD-S), N Mahesh (BSP), M K Kempasiddaiah (Samajwadi Party), K C Shivanand (JD-U), R Jagadish Nayak (Bharatiya Sahayoga Congress) and Chowdalli Javarayya (CPI-ML) belong to political parties in the backward Chamarajanagar reserve constituency. The remaining six, M Ramesh, A B Yogendra, Subbaiah, Bheemaiah, M C Rajanna and R Purushotham are Independents.

Soon after the withdrawal process was completed, the returning officers of the concerned districts allocated poll symbols to the candidates. Polling will take place on April 30 in the second phase of countrywide polling. Counting of votes will be on May 16.

Mysore Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer P Manivannan yesterday asked the candidates to keep their expenditure at Rs 25 lakh. Each candidate will be trailed by three observers, including an expenditure observer from April 14 (today) onwards. They will keep track of the expenditure incurred by each candidate by maintaining a shadow register. The data collected will be matched with the expenditure statement submitted by the candidates.

The election authorities have appointed a medical board to verify medical certificates submitted by government employees expressing their inability to turn up for election duty on health grounds. Those who have submitted false certificates will face prosecution. About 500 employees had expressed their inability to take up election duty, he said.

The police have recovered Rs 60.45 lakh from across the district since the day of the code of conduct coming into force. FIRs have been registered in respect of Rs 24.54 lakh and the rest of the amount has been returned after records were produced by the concerned. In all, 991 cases of violation of election code of conduct had been booked so far. Intensive 24-hour checking was going on at the check posts and each passing vehicle was inspected thoroughly, the Election Officer added.