Kumaraswamy, Sriramulu, Poojary enter fray in Karnataka

Former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, former minister B Sriramulu and state senior Congress leader Janardhana Poojary today jumped into the fray on the last day of filing of nominations for the April 17 Lok Sabha polls in the state.

Kumaraswamy, who was accompanied by wife Anitha Kumaraswamy, filed nomination papers to take on Union Minister M Veerappa Moily from Chikkaballapur Lok Sabha constituency.

The former Chief Minister and son of JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda quit as MP of Bangalore Rural after winning from Ramanagaram in the assembly polls. In the Lok Sabha bypoll, his wife lost to Congress' D K Suresh.

AAP, which has named both Moily and Kumaraswamy in Arvind Kejriwal's list of "most corrupt" politicians, has fielded a retired CRPF DIG Arkesh for the seat.

Speaking to reporters at Chikkaballapur, about 50 kms from here, Kumaraswamy said he stands a good chance winning the polls as both BJP and Congress parties were immersed in corruption.

Poojary, a former Union minister, filed his nomination papers from Dakshina Kannada constituency.

Poojary said there was a clear-cut battle between him and the BJP and other parties are not even in the race. "BJP has been soliciting votes in Narendra Modi's name, which means the contest is between Modi and me. Other parties like JDS are not even in the race," he said.

Sriramulu, a one-time close associate of mining baron Janardhana Reddy, now in jail in Andhra Pradesh in an illegal mining case, entered the arena from Bellary Lok Sabha constituency. He was reinducted into BJP recently despite stiff opposition by party senior leader Sushma Swaraj.

Sitting MP and Congress candidate actress Ramya filed her nomination papers from Mandya Lok Sabha constituency. She is fighting odds against JDS candidate C S Putturaju, whom she had trounced with a margin of nearly 50,000 votes in Mandya by-polls last year.

Sugar Minister Prakash Hukkeri filed his nomination to contest from Chikodi. He had won Assembly elections from Chikodi in 2013 by securing the highest number of votes.

Scrutiny of papers will be taken up tomorrow. March 29 is the last date for withdrawal of nominations.