Ramanagaram saw a rare display of bonhomie between Vokkaliga leaders as Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and foe-turned-friend D.K. Shivakumar turned up together at a huge public rally during the filing of nomination of the latter’s brother, D.K. Suresh, on Tuesday.
As many as 340 candidates have filed nominations across the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State that will go to the polls in the second phase of polling. Tuesday was the last day for filing nominations for those seats.
The display in Ramanagaram seemed to be a return favour given to Mr. Shivakumar by the Chief Minister and his son Nikhil, as the former had been present in Mandya when Mr. Nikhil filed his nomination papers on Monday. Addressing the rally in Ramanagaram, which is part of the Vokkaliga heartland in the Cauvery basin, both Mr. Kumaraswamy and Mr. Shivakumar portrayed themselves as brothers in arms and sought votes for Mr. Suresh and Mr. Nikhil on the development plank.
In Bengaluru South, where both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have sprung a surprises with their choices of candidate, B.K. Hariprasad (the Congress candidate) and Tejasvi Surya L.S. (the BJP nominee) filed their papers.
Congress sources said that several old Congressmen and friends of Mr. Hariprasad from National Students’ Union of India were present with him. This will be the second outing for Mr. Hariprasad from Bengaluru South (he lost to the late Ananth Kumar of the BJP in 1999). Mr. Surya, who will be making his electoral debut, was accompanied by Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrashekar and Chikpet MLA Uday Garudachar.
Another last-minute announcement by the Congress — Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Krishna Byre Gowda — filed his nomination papers from Bengaluru North, which the Janata Dal (Secular) had returned to the party as it could not find a suitable candidate to field.
In Tumakuru, which is emerging as a keenly observed constituency nationally with the entry of JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, BJP candidate G.S. Basavaraj officially entered the fray.
452 sets of nominations
As many as 452 nominations had been filed by 340 candidates by the end of Tuesday. According to data provided by the Election Commission, the number of nominations for the first 14 constituencies has gone up from 306 in 2014 to 340 in 2019. Last time around, after the deadline to withdraw from the contest passed, 233 candidates remained in the fray.
While Bengaluru North has the highest number of candidates (37), Hassan has the lowest (10). The nominations will be scrutinised by election officials on Wednesday. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is March 29.