Bellary City assembly constituency has the highest number of 30 candidates testing their political fate in the second phase of elections being held in Karnataka on Friday.Karkala has the least number of candidates in the second phase with just two persons pitted against each other. It is a straight fight between H Gopal Bhandary from the Congress against Sunil Kumar of the BJP.The key fight in Bellary City is between mining czars' Anil Lad who has crossed over from the BJP to Congress and the influential former mayor Gali Somasekhar Reddy from the BJP. Following the large number of candidates, the EC has deployed two EVMs in each polling booth coming under this constituency.The Bellary city constituency also has the highest number of Independents in the fray with a total of 25 candidates competing for votes.In fact there were 31 candidates after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended. JDS candidate M Diwakar Babu retired from contest reducing the field to 30 contestants.Kanakagiri Assembly Constituency has the next highest number of candidates in the fray with 20 contesting in this assembly segment. Four out of the 66 constituencies have 15 or more candidates who are involved in the battle of the ballot.Five constituencies-Raichur Rural, Kundapur, Udupi, Karkala and Belthangady- have fielded five or less than five candidates for the polls this time.The polls are being held in 66 constituencies spread over 10 districts with a total of 589 candidates in the fray.
