As many as 25 candidates have withdrawn their nomination papers till Saturday, the last day for withdrawal. While 108 had filed nominations, 12 were rejected during scrutiny.
Govindarajanagar constituency has the highest number of candidates - 27 while the least are in Chittapur - only nine. The Election Commission has to use two EVMs for polling in Govindarajanagar as more than 16 contestants are in the fray. Kollegal constituency had the highest number of withdrawals - nine.
RO relieved
The Election Commission has relieved Dasarahalli Joint Commissioner S N Nagaraj from the responsibilities as the Returning Officer (RO) for Govindarajanagar constituency. He will be replaced by Joint Commissioner of Tourism department Sreeramaiah.
Chief Electoral Officer C S Suranjan, on Saturday, told press persons that the Commission had received an information that Nagaraj is a distant relative of the Congress candidate contesting from Govindarajanagar. The BJP had appealed to the Commission to relieve Nagaraj from the RO’s post citing his relationship with Congress candidate Priya Krishna.
The Commission has appointed observers to all the five constituencies. They have already reached the designated constituencies. The public can inform any violation of the model of code of conduct to the observers.
Suranjan said the Commission had booked 12 cases of the violation of model code of conduct.
Of them two each are against workers of the BJP and Congress parties and eight against others.One each case has been booked against the Congress in Gulbarga and BBMP South. Two cases are booked against the BJP in Ramanagara.
Illegally stored liquor worth Rs 12,800 and Rs 25,590 have been seized in Gulbarga and Chamarajanagar districts, respectively.
Stall the decision
The Congress has urged the EC to stall the State Cabinet’s recent decision to withdraw cases related to violation of the election model code of conduct in Bellary. KPCC, in a memorandum to the EC, appealed it to intervene in the matter.
CEO Suranjan said he would forward the the Congress party’s appeal to to the Central Election Commission.
Third umpires
Constituency Observer Cell phone no
Ramanagara Chandrakar Bharati 94822-15223
Channapatna P R Bhaviskar 94822-15224
Kollegal Rajesh Kumar 94818-30266
Govindarajanagar Anil Kumar Singh 94806-84700
Chittapur Jogendrapal 94816-42062
