Three candidates, on Wednesday, have submitted five sets of nominations from the South Graduates constituency for the Legislative Council election scheduled to be held on June 9.
BJP candidate M V Ravishankar filed two sets of papers on the party ticket, while Congress candidate Dr H N Ravindra has filed one set from the party and one as an independent. P S Yedyurappa from Periyapatna has submitted his papers as an independent.
All the contestants have submitted their papers to Regional Commissioner A M Kunjappa, at his office, here. Ravishankar was accompanied by BJP leaders K S Eshwarappa, MLA C T Ravi, S Suresh Kumar, MP Prathap Simha and other leaders. Before submitting the papers, Ravishankar, along with his supporters, offered puja at Ganapathy temple and Kote Anjaneyaswamy temple near the Palace North Gate.
Only few Congress leaders
The Congress candidate Dr Ravindra was accompanied by only a few Congress party leaders — MLA Vasu, MLC R Dharmasena, Congress district unit president B K Vijaykumar, City unit president T S Ravishankar and Mandya district unit president M S Athmanand.
Speaking to media, Dr Ravindra said, the senior leaders of the party were busy with another programme.
Ravindra’s request to Bhagwan
Dr Ravindra said, he has urged writer K S Bhagwan, who is planning to contest the elections, not to contest.
“Bhagwan is a rationalist and secular votes will be divided between Congress and Bhagwan, if he contests. It will be easy for communalists to win. I have spoken to Bhagwan in this regard,” said Dr Ravindra.
Dr Ravindra said, a few people are branding him as a criminal and he would not bother about those allegations. “Before accusing, let them see the documents. They can obtain the documents under Right to Information (RTI) Act or else I can provide the documents,” he said.
Charge
Ravindra is facing the charge of misusing the salary of an employee, when he was the administrative doctor at Balupet Primary Health Centre (PHC) and was in-charge of Belagodu PHC and Taluk Medical Officer of Sakleshpur, in Hassan district, in 2013.
It can be recalled that a few Congress party workers had urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, during his recent visit to Mysuru, not to issue ticket to Dr Ravindra as he had criminal background.
