Karwar: Following the nomination withdrawal deadline on Monday, 22 April, a total of 13 candidates remain in the running for the Uttara Kannada (UK) Lok Sabha (LS) constituency. The field includes representatives from two national political parties, three regional parties, and eight independent candidates.

According to UK Returning Officer and Deputy Commissioner, Gangubai Mankar, Monday marked the final day for withdrawing nominations. No candidates withdrew, leading Mankar to confirm that these 13 candidates would proceed to the final contest in the upcoming LS election scheduled for May 7.

The race is expected to see a direct contest between the Indian National Congress's Dr. Anjali Nimbalkar and the BJP's Visveshwar Hegde Kageri. Also in the fray are Ganapati Hegde from the Socialist Unity Center of India (Communist), Vinayak Mangesh Naik from the Karnataka Rashtra Samithi (KRS), and Sunil Pawar from the Uttam Prajakiya Party (UPP).

This election is notable in the history of the Uttara Kannada LS constituency, previously known as the Canara Constituency, as it features a record number of eight independent candidates. These candidates are Krishnaji Patil, Chidananda Hanumantappa Harijan, Niranjan Uday Sinha Sardesai, Nagraj Ananth Shirali, Arvind Gowda, Avinash Narayan Patil, Krishna Hanumantappa Balegar, and Rajshekhar Shankar Hindalagi.

It is worth noting that the nomination process began on April 12, with 19 candidates initially filing 26 sets of nomination papers. Of these, 17 sets were rejected during scrutiny.