Nominations of 51 candidates rejected

Nomination papers of 51 candidates for the April 17 Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka were rejected during scrutiny today.
As many as 916 nominations were filed, of which 865 by 502 contestants were declared valid, Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha told reporters here.
Jha said 15,85,224 fresh voters have been included in the voters' list across the state, taking the total number of electorate to 4.62 crore.
He said no nominations filed by prominent parties- Congress, BJP and JDS - have been rejected, except the nominations filed by substitute candidates. "For instance, in Chikkodi nomination of substitute BJP candidate Umesh Katti was rejected," he said.

Highest number of candidates, 38, are contesting from Bidar Lok Sabha constituency and Uttar Kannada has the lowest with 10 candidates, he said.
Jha also said the nomination papers of the controversial leader of right-wing outfit Sri Ram Sene Pramod Muthalik were cleared to contest from Bangalore South, where he will lock horns against incumbent BJP MP Ananth Kumar.

Muthalik also is contesting elections from Dharwad constituency, where he will take on State BJP president Prahlad Joshi.
He was induced into BJP, but hours later his entry was vetoed by a red-faced central leadership after the move backfired with criticism from within party and its opponents.

Talking about the seizures, Jha said election officials have seized Rs 2.64 crore in cash so far from various parts of the state.
An amount of Rs 7.5 lakh and Rs 4 lakh in cash were seized from Navalgund and Virajpet, respectively. Another Rs 3.2 lakh in cash was seized from Hassan city, he added.
As much as 3.5 tons of rice was seized here and seven persons arrested in the case, Jha said, adding that 608 grams of gold and 7.77 kg of silver worth Rs 15.24 lakh were seized from Alnavar.
Officials seized 34,869 litres of liqour worth Rs 1.35 crore and 479 cases have been registered under violation of Model Code of Conduct, Jha said.

March 29 is the last date for withdrawal of nominations.