Candidature of five contestants to the June 17 biennial elections for four seats from Karnataka was found to be in order during scrutiny today.
The nomination papers of Venkaiah Naidu, Ayanur Manjunath (both BJP), Oscar Fernandes and T V Maruthi (both Congress) and Vijay Mallya — was found to be in order during scrutiny today, S B Patil, Secretary, Karnataka Legislative Assembly Secretariat, who is also election officer, said.
Two nominations -- that of K Padmarajan and Narayana Gowda (both independents) -- were rejected in the absence of proposers' name, he said. Asked if the BJP would help Mallya to win with its surplus votes (31), Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa told reporters in Belgaum that BJP MLAs would only support party candidates -- Venkaiah Naidu and Ayanur Manjunath. Congress, which has 74 MLAs, has fielded Oscar Fernandes as its first choice, and T V Maruthi as the second candidate. The latter needs the support of 16 more MLAs for win. Mallya entered the race as JDS-backed independent after talks between the JDS and Congress for an electoral understanding failed.