Karnataka Assembly elections 2018: Yogendra Yadav's Swaraj Abhiyan to contest 12 seats, names 6 candidates

The party has announced a list of six candidates, and is expected to announce six more soon.

Swaraj India, the fledgling political outfit led by psephologist and former AAP leader Yogendra Yadav, is set to contest in 12 seats in the coming Karnataka Assembly election, a party spokesperson has said. The party released its first list of six candidates for the polls.

The six candidates named by the party so far feature five seats in south and central Karnataka and one in the state's northeast. The party's named candidates feature in two seats in Mandya and one each in Bengaluru and Chamarajanagara districts, all southern districts with strong agricultural communities. Also named were candidates for one seat each in the central Chitradurga and northeastern Yadgir districts.

Addressing a gathering after releasing the first list of candidates, party leaders spoke of a number of issues, ranging from corruption and developmental inequalities to climate change. They also characterised Swaraj India as an amalgamation of farmer, Dalit and anti-corruption movements.

The first list of candidates of the party features Darshan Puttannaiah from Melukote and SH Linge Gowda from Maddur in Mandya; KP Bhoothaiah from Challakere in Chitradurga, S Srikantaswamy from Hanur in Charamajanagara; Ramesh Chandra from Mahadevapura in Bengaluru, and Vaijanath Patil from Yadgir.

Darshan Puttannaiah is the son of farmer leader KS Puttananaiah, who died in February. He will contest for the Melukote seat which his father held at the time of his death, for the Karnataka Sarvodaya Paksha, which merged with Swaraj India last year.

The leaders said they would soon announce candidates for the other seats the party would contest, in time for the April 25 deadline for the filing of nominations. The Karnataka Assembly elections are set to held in a single phase, will all 225 seats going to the polls on May 12. The counting of votes is set to take place in May 15.