Bigwigs including Union Ministers Mallikarjuna Kharge, M Veerappa Moily, former Chief Ministers D V Sadananda Gowda, B S Yeddyurappa and N Dharam Singh jumped into the fray as filing of nominations for the April 17 Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka began gathering momentum.
Twenty-eight candidates filed their nomination papers on Thursday, the second day since the process was set in motion, Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha said.
In all, the first two days of election process saw 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, JD-S 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 liquor 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.
Former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa also today entered the fray for the April 17 Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka.
Yeddyurappa filed his nominations for Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency, where he is pitted against Geetha Shivaraj Kumar, daughter of former Chief Minister S Bangarappa and wife of Kannada film actor Shivarajkumar.
BJP's Ananth Kumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada), Nalin Kumar Katil (Mangalore) and Pratap Simha (Mysore) also filed nominations.
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.
Meanwhile, Congress veteran C K Jaffer Sharief and former MP H T Sangliana are likely to join JD-S, party supremo and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said today.
Speaking to reporters, Gowda said, "If everything comes through, especially after the meeting I had with him, Sharief will contest from Mysore.
Sangliana also had talks with me and the party will decide on his entry in the next few days."
Another former MP Dhananjay Kumar, a one-time close associate of former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa also joined the JD-S today and was named the party candidate for Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency.
Yeddyurappa returned to BJP by merging his Karnataka Janatha Paksha into it, but some of his followers on whom the door was shut included Kumar, who had made no-holds-barred personal attacks on senior BJP leader L K Advani.
An eight-time MP, Sharief is sulking after the party denied him the ticket to contest from Bangalore Central. He lost an election for the first time ironically at the hands of Sangliana of BJP then in the 2004 elections.
Sangliana, a former Bangalore Police Comm-issioner, joined the Congress in 2009, when he lost from Bangalore Central.
