Nilekani, Vishwanath, Dhananjay file papers

Congress candidate from Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency Nandan Nilekani with wife Rohini after he filed his nomination papers in Bangalore on Friday.

Former Union Minister V. Dhananjay Kumar of the Janata Dal (Secular); Mysore-Kodagu MP and former Minister A.H. Vishwanath, former Chairman of the UIDAI Nandan Nilekani (both Congress) and S.M. Siddeshwara (BJP) were among 35 persons, who filed their nomination papers for the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka on Friday.

This takes the total number of candidates and nominations filed in the State in the last three days to 85 and 135 respectively. Mr. Kumar, Mr. Vishwanath, Mr. Nilekani and Mr. Siddeshwara filed for Udupi-Chikmaglur, Mysore-Kodagu, Bangalore South and Davangere segments, respectively.

Giving the details to presspersons, Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha said that nomination papers have been filed for all but the Chamarajanagar constituency. The other prominent candidates who filed their papers were the former Ministers Gulihatti Shekar of the JD(S) (Chitradurga), S.S. Mallikarjun of Congress (Davangere), Prakash Rathod, also of the Congress (Bijapur) and Muddahanume Gowda of the Congress (Tumkur).

Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress president Rizwan Arshad filed his papers from Bangalore Central constituency. G.K.C. Reddy from Janata Dal (United) from Chickballapur and B. Venkatesha of Karunadu Party filed nominations from Tumkur constituencies.

Mr. Jha said that cash, saris and household articles meant for distribution among voters were seized from several places.

He said Rs. 47 lakh in cash in Byatarayanapura Assembly constituency in the city, and Rs. 26 lakh and 227 saris in Chamarajanagar constituency were seized from two persons.

Asked whether any legal action was taken against candidates in the last Legislative Assembly elections by the Election Commission officials, Mr. Jha said investigations and trials were in progress and charge sheets had been filed against them.

Special Officer (Technical) K.N. Ramesh said procedures had been made easy for the voters to get information pertaining to the elections, such as candidate names, their affidavits, place and address of polling stations through the Election Commission website.