2,655 candidates in fray for Karnataka Assembly polls

In all, 2,655 candidates are in the fray for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly polls, the state Election Commission said on Saturday.

Of the 3,509 candidates who filed valid nominations by the deadline on Tuesday, papers of 271 others were rejected after scrutiny on Wednesday. A total of 583 candidates withdrew from the contest by Friday.

Of those still in the fray, 219 are women.

As many as 222 nominees are from the ruling Congress, 224 from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 201 from Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), 1,155 independents and 800 from other national, regional and fringe parties, according to the final list released by the poll panel.

In the 2013 Assembly elections, there were 2,948 candidates, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sanjiv Kumar said in a statement.

However, the number of female candidates this time has gone up to 219 from 170 in 2013 elections, while the total number of male candidates came down to 2,436 this time compared with 2,778 in the 2013 elections.

The number of rejections and withdrawals also went up this time to 854 from 744 in the last Assembly elections.

Mulbagal constituency in Kolar district has the highest number of candidates -- 39.

State capital Bengaluru, which alone has 28 Assembly segments, has 450 candidates, including 37 women.

Polling will be held in a single phase for all 224 constituencies, including 36 reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 15 for Scheduled Tribes (STs). The votes will be counted on May 15.

--IANS

bha/tsb/vm