In a big relief to both the Congress and the BJP, leaders of both the parties who had rebelled against their party decisions and filed their nomination papers as Independent candidates, withdrew their nomination papers on Monday.
In all, 18 candidates out of the total 110 candidates in seven Assembly constituencies of Dharwad district withdrew their nomination papers on Monday, according to District Election Officer Gurudatta Hegde.
That leaves 92 candidates in the fray. The deadline for withdrawal of nomination papers ended at 3 p.m. on Monday.