Bengaluru:  The public campaigning for 14 Lok Sabha seats in the Northern part of the State will draw to a close at 6 pm today.

The 14 constituencies — Shivamogga, Davanagere, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Belagavi, Chikkodi, Bagalkot, Vijayapura, Ballari, Koppal, Raichur, Kalaburagi and Bidar — will go to the polls on Apr.23 in the second phase of elections in the State (third in the country).

In Shivamogga, the sons of two former Chief Ministers are battling it out. While B.Y. Raghavendra, son of State BJP Chief and former CM B.S. Yeddyurappa, is contesting on a BJP ticket, Madhu Bangarappa, the younger son of former Chief Minister late S. Bangarappa, is contesting as the coalition candidate on a JD(S) ticket.

In Kalaburagi, Congress party leader in Parliament Mallikarjuna Kharge is taking on Dr. Umesh Jadhav of BJP, while Union Minister Ramesh Jigajinagi is taking on Sunitha Chavan of JD(S) in Viajayapura (SC) LS seat and another Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde of BJP is taking on former Minister Anand Asnotikar of JD(S) in Uttara Kannada.

Former Union Minister G.M. Siddeshwar of BJP is taking on H.B. Manjappa of the Congress in Davanagere, Devendrappa of BJP is pitted against sitting Congress MP V.S. Ugrappa in Ballari, veteran BJP leader and sitting MP Sanganna Karadi of BJP is facing Rajashekar Hitnal of Congress in Koppal and KPCC Working President Eshwar Khandre is pitted against sitting MP Bhagwanth Khuba of BJP in Bidar.

The 14 LS seats in the Southern part of the State went to the polls on April 18 and the counting of votes will be taken up across the country on May 23.