Bengaluru: The filing of nomination papers for the remaining 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka began this morning, with the Election Commission of India issuing a notification to this effect.

The 14 Constituencies, all in Northern part of the State which are going to the polls in the second and final phase in the State (third in the country) are Davanagere, Shivamogga, Haveri, Dharwad, Gulbarga (SC), Vijayapura (SC), Raichur (ST), Ballari (ST), Bidar, Koppal, Uttara Kannada, Bagalkot, Belagavi and Chikkodi.

The prominent candidates who are going to file nomination in these seats are former CM Jagadish Shettar of the BJP from Belagavi, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi of the BJP from Dharwad, former Union Minister Ramesh Jigajinagi of the BJP from Vijayapura, former IAS Officer G. Kumar Nayak as Congress candidate from Raichur, former CM Basavaraj Bommai of BJP from Haveri, B.Y. Raghavendra, son of veteran BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa from Shivamogga as BJP candidate, Mrinal Hebbalkar, son of Minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar from Belagavi as Congress candidate, Sagar Khandre, son of Minister Eswhar Khandre from Bidar as Congress candidate, Priyanka Jarkiholi, daughter of Minister Satish Jarkiholi as Congress candidate from Chikkodi, Samyukta Patil, daughter of Minister Shivanand Patil as Congress candidate from Bagalkot and former Minister B. Sriramulu as BJP candidate from Ballari.

Also, veteran BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister K.S. Eshwarappa, who is miffed over the denial of the party ticket to his son K.E. Kantesh from Haveri seat, is all set to contest as independent candidate from Shivamogga, while prominent Lingayat Seer Dingaleshwara Swamiji too has declared that he will be contesting as an independent candidate from Dharwad against Joshi of BJP.

The last date for filing of nominations for these Constituencies is Apr. 19 and scrutiny of papers will take place on Apr. 20. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is Apr. 22 and the voting will take place on May 7.

The 14 other Constituencies in Karnataka, all in Southern part of the State, will go to the polls in the first phase (second in the country) on Apr. 26.

The Congress and BJP-JD(S) coalition have named their candidates for all the 28 seats in the State. While the poll campaign has hottened up in the 14 Constituencies going to polls on Apr. 26, the campaign in the remaining 14 seats of the State is yet to pick up momentum, as the leaders of the political parties are right now concentrating on the Apr. 26 polls.

The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4 after all the 7 phases of polling across the country concludes on June 1.