With only two days left for the filing of nominations for the May 5 Assembly elections, as many as 32 candidates, including a dummy candidate, filed their papers across eight Assembly segments in Dakshina Kannada on Monday.
The Deputy Speaker in the Assembly N. Yogish Bhat and former minister in-charge of the district J. Krishna Palemar filed their papers as candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeking re-election from Mangalore City South and Mangalore City North constituencies, respectively. Former Commissioner of Mangalore City Corporation J. R. Lobo, who is taking on Mr. Bhat, filed his papers as the Congress candidate.
Former minister K. Amarnath Shetty filed his nomination as the Janata Dal (Secular) candidate and K. Abhayachandra Jain, as the Congress candidate from Moodbidri constituency.
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The four-term BJP MLA S. Angara filed his papers from Sullia, a reserved constituency. Another candidate A. Angara filed his papers as an independent from the same constituency. The former Congress MLA from Sullia K. Kushala filed his papers as an independent candidate from Sullia. B. Raghu, a doctor, filed his papers as the Congress candidate from the same constituency. Rajesh Naik filed his papers as the BJP candidate from Bantwal. He would face B. Ramanath Rai, president, District Congress Committee and five-term MLA, who is yet to file his papers.
K. Vasanth Bangera, filed his papers as the Congress candidate seeking re-election from Belthangady. Chandrahasa Ullal from the BJP and Abdul Azeez from the Janata Dal (Secular) filed their papers from Mangalore .
Meanwhile, Congress workers tried to put up a united front on Monday after days of bickering over selection of Mr. Lobo, a newcomer. Replying to a question after filing the nomination Mr. Lobo said: “There is nothing called newcomer or old-timer in the party.”
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Our Udupi Special Correspondent reports:
Fifteen candidates filed their nomination papers in Udupi district on Monday.
The prominent among those who filed nominations are: B. Sundhakar Shetty from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Pramod Madhwaraj (Congress) from Udupi, V. Sunil Kumar (BJP), Praveen S. Mabian (Karnataka Janata Paksha), Sunil Soans (BSP) from Karkala, Lalaji Mendon (BJP) from Kaup, Kishore (BJP), Malyady Shivaram Shetty (Congress) and Halady Srinivas Shetty (independent) from Kundapur, Gopal Poojary (Congress), K. Shankar (CPI(M)), and Uday (BSP), from Byndoor.