)
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Friday released its ninth list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls and said it was fielding Shivakumar Giriyappa Malagi against the BJP's B. Sriramulu in Bellary in Karnataka in what is expected to be a high-profile contest.
Sriramulu's BSR Congress, which he had floated after quitting the BJP, was merged with the saffron party recently despite senior leader Sushma Swaraj's expressing reservations over this.
The BJP gave a ticket to Sriramulu in preference to incumbent J. Shantha.
Sriramulu is a close aide of former minister and jailed mining baron G. Janardhan Reddy, who was formerly with the BJP.
The ninth list contains the names of 30 candidates - 15 from Karnataka, three each from Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and West Bengal, two each from Maharashtra and Assam and one each from Kerala and Odisha.
With this, the AAP has now declared 317 candidates for the 543 Lok Sabha seats for which elections will be held. Two members of the Anglo-Indian community are nominated to the 545-member house.
