Bengaluru, April 24: A record number of 2,407 candidates are in the fray for the May 12 Karnataka assembly elections, as per the nominations received by the Election Commission till Tuesday, the last day for filing nominations.
The candidates included 244 candidates from the ruling Congress, 258 from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 208 from Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), 1,084 from Independents and 613 others from various regional and fringe outfits.
Of the 244 candidates of the Congress, only 15 are women. A total of 16 women have filed nominations as BJP candidates and 12 from JD-S. There are 56 other women contesting in the elections as Independents from various constituencies.
Among those who filed their nominations on Tuesday included Chief Minister Siddaramaiah from Badami in Bagalkot district, his second nomination besides Chamundeshwari in Mysuru district. He will face BJP MP B. Sreeramulu, who also filed his nomination from the assembly segment, in addition to Molakamuru (reserved) seat in Chitradurga district.
Congress on Tuesday fielded P. Ravikumar Ganiga from Mandya Assembly segment after the party's sitting MLA and popular star Ambareesh declined to contest though the party gave him the form required for nomination (Form-B) and tried to convince him in vain.
The party's state incharge K.C. Venugopal told the media here later that Ambareesh was not in fray for health issues but hoped he would campaign for the Congress as he was one of the most popular leaders in the state.
Polling will be held in a single phase on May 12 for 224 Assembly seats, including 36 reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 15 for the Scheduled Tribes. Votes will be counted on May 15.
Tuesday was the last date for filing nominations. Scrutiny will be on April 25 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 27.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
7 held for running fake call centre in South Kolkata
Kolkata (PTI): Seven people were arrested from the Parnashree area in the southern part of the city for allegedly running a fake call centre, a police officer said on Saturday.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided a house on Netaji Subhas Road on Friday night and found the fake call centre operating from the ground floor, he said.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused had set up a bogus company using forged documents and posed as employees of an antivirus firm to call citizens in the US, the officer said.
"The callers would gain the trust of victims and then use remote access to take control of their phones or other digital devices. The accused allegedly siphoned off large sums of money, running into millions of dollars, from victims' accounts," he said.
Five laptops, two WiFi routers, six mobile phones and four headsets were seized from the accused, he said, adding that the seven are being questioned to ascertain the full extent of the racket and to identify others involved.
