Bengaluru, Apr 5: Nominations of 30 candidates were rejected Friday after scrutiny for 14 Lok Sabha constituencies which will go to polls in the second phase on April 23, election officials said.
They said the number of validly nominated candidates stands at 288.
Belgaum with 65 has the maximum number of candidates while Raichur with six has the lowest, according to officials.
A total of 318 candidates have filed 457 nominations till Thursday, the last day of filing nominations.
Prominent among those who have filed their nominations for the second phase are Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Union Ministers Ananth Kumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada, Ramesh Jigajinagi from Bijapur;
BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra and former chief minister S Bangarappa's son Madhu Bangarappa of JD(S) from Shimogga.
The list also included Umesh Jadhav, a rebel Congress MLA who resigned recently and joined BJP- from Gulbarga, sitting BJP MP Prahlad Joshi from Dharwad and Congress Working President Eshwar Khandre from Bidar.
Karnataka will go to polls in two phases, 14 constituencies each, on April 18 and 23.
According to officials, 241 candidates are in the fray for the first phase of polls on April 18.
For the second phase of elections on April 23, the last day for withdrawal of nominations is April 8.
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Chandigarh: A loud blast was reported outside the residence of senior BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia in Jalandhar, Punjab, around 1 am on Monday, sparking panic in the area.
According to the police, no one was injured in the incident. The blast occurred near Shastri Market, close to Kalia’s house. Forensic teams have arrived at the scene to collect evidence and determine the nature of the explosion.
Jalandhar Police Commissioner Dhanpreet Kaur said the investigation is underway to ascertain whether it was a grenade attack or caused by another explosive device. CCTV footage from the vicinity is also being examined to trace the culprits.
Kalia, a former Cabinet minister and ex-president of the Punjab BJP, was reportedly at home at the time of the incident.
This incident comes amid a series of similar blasts reported across Punjab in recent months, including explosions targeting police posts in Amritsar and Gurdaspur, and one outside a temple in Amritsar last month.