The BJP on Sunday released its first list of 72 candidates to contest in the Karnataka assembly elections 2018, and it included the name of the sitting BJP MLA Sanjay Patil from Belagavi Rural.
Sanjay Patil will again contest from Belagavi Rural this time. There were rumors that Sanjay Patil could be made to contest the Belagavi North seat against Fairoz Saith but the party thought it fit to give ticket from rural only.
The INC contestant is likely to Laxmi Hebbalkar and it would be worth to see who the MES will field.
In 2013 Sanjay B Patil of the BJP won with a margin of 1,335 while Kinekar Manohar (Independent – MES) was the runner up.
Patil had secured 38,322 votes while Kinekar had secured 36,987 followed by Laxmi Hebbalkar who got 35,811 votes.
Shivaji Sunthkar then was an independent candidate and had secured 15,759 votes which experts say was the decisive factor as the Marathi votes got divided. But this year Sunthkar has officially joined the BJP so he wont contest this time.
The battle lines will be drawn in the next week and brace your selves for a tough fight.
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