Bangalore: Former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, former minister B Sriramulu and state senior Congress leader Janardhana Poojary were among 225 candidates who plunged into the fray on the last day of filing of nominations for the April 17 Lok Sabha polls in the state.
As the deadline neared, there was a rush for filing nominations for which the process was initiated on March 19 for 28 Lok Sabha seats.
So far, nominations have been filed by 559 candidates since the poll process began, Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha said.
After weeks of suspense over his move, Kumaraswamy filed his nominations taking on Union Minister M Veerappa Moily who is seeking re-election from Chikkaballapur constituency.
The former chief minister and son of JDS supremo HD 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' DK Suresh.
Poojary, a former Union minister, filed his nomination papers from Dakshina Kannada constituency where he said there was a clear-cut battle between him and the BJP.
"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," Poojary, a former KPCC chief, 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.
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