After the last date of withdrawals on Friday, a total of 241 candidates are in the fray in Karnataka's 14 Lok Sabha constituencies that will go to polls in the first phase on April 18, poll officials said late on Friday night. “With 33 withdrawals after scrutiny of 274 validly nominated candidates on Wednesday, the number of contestants in 14 parliamentary seats is 241," He added.
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The Bangalore North Lok Sabha constituency has the maximum 31 candidates, followed by 25 in Bengaluru South and 22 in Bengaluru Central, while Hassan has the least at six. The first phase of the polling includes prominent figures like the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo HD Deve Gowda (Tumkur) and his grandsons Prajwal Revanna and Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Hassan and Mandya respectively. In a big relief to Deve Gowda, rebel candidate SP Muddahanumegowda on Friday pulled out of the contest. There were 362 candidates, who filed nominations by the last date on March 26 for the first phase after notification on March 19. Karnataka will go to polls in two phases, 14 constituencies each, on April 18 and 23.
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