more-in A total of 39 candidates are in the fray for the five Assembly constituencies of Udupi, Byndoor, Karkala, Kundapur and Kaup in Udupi district following the scrutiny of nomination papers here on Wednesday. Udupi has the highest number of candidates in the fray in the district with 10 candidates, while Kaup has the lowest at five candidates. The candidates in fray in other three constituencies are: Byndoor – nine, Karkala – eight, and Kundapur –seven. Lakshmivara Tirtha Swami of Shiroor Mutt will be contesting as an independent candidate from Udupi. He is the first seer among the seers of the Ashta Mutts or eight mutts of Udupi, which have been propagating the Dwaita philosophy, to enter the election fray. Another interesting aspect is that the Shiv Sena has fielded a candidate – Madhukara Mudradi for Udupi constituency making the battle here worth a watch. It is the first time in the history of Udupi district that the Shiv Sena is contesting. The remaining candidates in fray in Udupi Assembly Constituency are: Pramod Madhwaraj (the Congress), K. Raghupati Bhat (the Bharatiya Janata Party), Gangadhar Birti (the Janata Dal (Secular)), Shekhar Havanje (the Republican Party of India), Y.S. Vishwanath (the All India Mahila Empowerment Party), Mahesha, Ramesh Markala and Sudheer Kanchan, Independent candidates. The candidates in the fray for Byndoor constituency are: K. Gopal Poojary (the Congress), B.M. Sukumar Shetty (the BJP), C. Ravindra (the JD-S), Suresh Kallagar (the Communist Party of India – Marxist), Abdul Hajeed (the All India Mahila Empowerment Party), Manjunath K., Marakala Manjunath Basava, Subrahmanya B., and H. Suresh Poojary, Independent candidates. In the fray for Kundapur are: Rakesh Malli (the Congress), Halady Srinivas Shetty (the BJP), Thekkatte Prakash Shetty (the JD-S), Rajiv Kotian (the Janata Dal – United), Sudhakara Soorgoli (the RPI-A), Rakesh Malya and Vikas Hegde, Independent candidates. The candidates in the fray for Karkala are: H. Gopal Bhandary (the Congress), V. Sunil Kumar (the BJP), Uday Kumar (the Bahujan Samaj Party) Maksood Ahmed (the All India Mahila Empowerment Party), Abdul Azeez, Ashraf Ali, Mohammed Shareef, and Sumantha K. Poojary, Independent candidates. The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers is April 27.

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