Mandya turf hots up for Assembly polls

12 file nominations in Mandya; 20 in Hassan; 10 in Chamarajanagar

Election campaign has picked up in the district with some prominent candidates filing their nomination. In all, 12 nominations were filed on Tuesday. State leaders, including Opposition Leader Siddaramaiah, visited the district to seek support for their candidates.

After launching the poll campaign for Malavalli constituency candidate P M Narendraswamy, Siddaramaiah said that only Congress was capable of providing a stable government.

Taking a dig at former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, he said that Gowda forced him to leave JD(S) with the sole intention of installing his son H D Kumaraswamy as chief minister. “It was due to the conspiracies of Deve Gowda that BJP formed the government in Karnataka,” he said.

In Srirangapatna, Sarvodaya Karnataka Party candidate K S Nanjundegowda filed his nomination and ryot leader Chukki Nanjundaswamy launched the campaign at the private bus stand in the town.

Raitha Sangha state president Chamarasa Mali Patil said political parties and their candidates were encouraging alcoholism among young people. “They loot public money when in power and splurge during elections. They corrupt people in the process. Voters should support ryot leader Nanjundegowda, who has been fighting for the rights of farmers.” he said.

Both major candidates in Melkote constituency — MLA C S Puttaraju of JD(S) and ex-MLA K S Puttannaiah of Sarvodaya Karnataka Party — launched their campaigns on Tuesday.

Ex-minister Leeladevi R Prasad launched the campaign for Puttaraju at Pandavapura. Puttaraju said that he has lost respect for even writer and SKP president Devanuru Mahadeva. Ryot leader Pachche Nanjundaswamy, addressing a public meeting at T S Chatra in Pandavapura taluk, said farmers should take over politics from professional politicians, as politics was a deciding factor in all issues that touch human lives. The meeting had been organised in support of Puttannaiah.

20 nominations

In all, 20 nominations were filed in seven constituencies in Hassan district on Tuesday. Three from Shravanabelagola, two from Arsikere, two from Belur, three from Hassan, three from Holenarasipur, one each from Arakalgud and Sakleshpur have filed their nominations.

Hassan - Ejaz Ahmed Farooq has filed his nominations from Indian Republican Party for Hassan assembly constituency; S A Ibrahim from Social Democratic Party of India and M B Guru Prasad from BJP.

Arsikere - Venkatesh and Ravi, both independents, have filed their papers.
Holenarasipura - Independent candidate Maligegowda and Shobha from BSR Congress and Kovi Babanna from Karnataka Raitha Rakshana Vedike.

Arakalgud - Shivakumar of Samajwadi Janata party.

Belur - H M Viswanath of KJP and Bhujendra of BSR Congress.

Shravanabelagola - Rangawamy M R - BSP and G K Satish and Balakrishna bothindependents.

Sakleshpur - Puttaiah of Hindustan Nirmal Dal; Gangadhara Prasad, Sanjay Babu Veeresh, Indpendents have filed their papers.

10 file nominations

 A total of 10 nominations were filed for Assembly elections in the district on Tuesday.

For Hanur constituency, M Ravi filed his papers from AIADMK party and M Pradeep Kumar as Independent candidates. G M Gadkar filed nomination for Gundlupet constitunecy from Samajavadi Party and Nagendra from BSP.

Karunakara Kuderu filed the papers for Chamarajanagar constituency as Independent, D S Doreswamy from Samajavadi Party, Dundegowda as Independent, P Sanghasena from RPI and Puttraju as an Independent. There were however no nominations from Kollegal.