A total of 2,613 candidates will be contesting in the Karnataka Assembly elections that will go to polls on May 10. The list of candidates was finalised after the last day of withdrawal of nominations of candidates on April 24. According to the Election Commission, there are a total of 2,427 male candidates, 185 women candidates and one transgender person.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fielding candidates in all the 224 constituencies, while the Congress is fielding 223 candidates as it has extended its support to Darshan Puttannaiah in Melukote who is contesting from Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha. The Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)] is contesting from 207 seats and the AAP is contesting from 209 seats.
Other parties include Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which is contesting from 133 seats, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in four seats and the National People’s Party (NPP) in two seats. There are 693 candidates contesting from registered unrecognised parties and 918 independents.
A total of 517 candidates withdrew from the fray, with Jewargi seeing the maximum number of withdrawal of nominations at 13. The Election Commission will be using two ballot units in 16 constituencies, where there are more than 15 candidates. Twenty-six candidates withdrew from 28 constituencies that come under Bengaluru. A total of 389 candidates are contesting in Bengaluru city, with 351 men and 38 women in the fray. The constituencies of Yelahanka, Byatarayanapura and Rajajinagar have more than 15 candidates each.
While BJP and Congress both have spent the last few days convincing some rebels to take back their candidature, they were only partially successful. Congress was able to convince former mayor Gangambike Mallikarjuna to withdraw her candidacy from Chickpet constituency. But another rebel, Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, the sitting MLA from Pulakeshinagar, who was denied a ticket from Congress, had filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate. He also filed another set of papers from BSP. After both were accepted, Srinivas Murthy joined BSP on Monday, April 24 and is now contesting on their ticket. The Congress was also unable to convince Yousuf Sharif alias KGF Babu to withdraw his nomination. Sharif was recently subjected to raids by the Income Tax Department for tax evasion. In Gandhinagar, BJP failed to convince rebel candidate Krishnaiah Shetty to withdraw his nomination.