Bigwigs enter fray in Karnataka

Bigwigs, Union Ministers Mallikarjuna Kharge and M Veerappa Moily and former Chief Ministers D V Sadananda Gowda and N Dharam Singh jumped into the fray as filing of nominations for the April 17 Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka gathered momentum today.
Twenty-eight candidates filed nomination papers on the second day today since the process was set in motion, Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha said
Totally, in the first two days of election process, 50 candidates have filed nominations from 23 Lok Sabha constituencies, Jha said. Karnataka has 28 seats.
Giving partywise breakup, Jha said 12 BJP and seven Congress candidates filed their nominations. The Nationalist Congress Party, JDS and Karunadu Party, filed one each. Eleven Independent candidates have also filed their papers so far, Jha said.

Congress warhorse Kharge is seeking re-election from Gulbarga (Reserved) and Moily from Chikkaballapur.
Dharam Singh (Congress) and Sadananda Gowda (BJP) submitted their nominations for Bidar and Bangalore North constituencies, respectively.

BJP's Ananth Kumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada), Nalin Kumar Katil (Dakshin Kannada) and Pratap Simha (Mysore) also filed nominations.
Jha said EC officials have so far seized Rs 75 lakh in cash and items like 2,000 T-shirts from Kolar city.Sixty-three sarees and 1,580 caps were seized from Magadi takuk, he said.
Officials seized 10,700 litres of liqour worth Rs 60 lakh, Jha said adding that 14,835 anti-social persons had been rounded up in as many as 7,381 cases.

Jha said police and Income-Tax officials would work in tandem to conduct free and fair polls. "Both the departments have set up call centres to receive poll-related complaints."
The last date for filing nominations is March 26.
Scrutiny of papers will be taken up the next day. March 29 is the last date for withdrawal of nominations.