Bengaluru, Feb 14: The polling was largely peaceful in the byelection to the three Karnataka assembly constituencies on Saturday barring stray incidents of violence. Byelections were held at Hebbal in Bengaluru, Devadurga in Raichur district and Bidar North.
66.95 pc polling in Devadurga
A total of 66.95 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise in the byelection to the Devadurga Assembly constituency.
Preliminary reports suggested that eight per cent of the votes had been cast in the first two hours. The polling picked pace later on. There was more enthusiasm in the polling in rural areas. The election started late at a few places due to glitches in the electronic voting machines. There were verbal duels among workers of parties at a few places over missing names in the voters’ list.
Barring these incidents, the voting was peaceful in all the 247 booths of the constituency. Parties had made arrangements to bring voters to the booths at a few places. There was heavy police security at the voting centres to prevent untoward incidents.
44 per cent vote in Hebbal; Cong-BJP blame game
The Hebbal constituency saw 44.48 percent of the electorate, covering eight BBMP wards, casting their votes in Saturday’s byelection. Polling went on peacefully without any major incidents of violence. In 2013, the constituency had recorded 54.89 percent polling.
Congress and BJP workers indulged in a heated argument at Vishwanatha Nagenahalli near Hebbal flyover, each alleging election malpractice. BJP workers objected to some “mysterious” people roaming around polling booths and charged the Congress with trying to influence voters.
BJP workers accused the Congress of bringing people from outside Hebbal constituency to cast bogus votes. On learning about the incident, BJP candidate Y A Narayanaswamy arrived at the spot and demanded that the police take action against “outsiders.”
Narayanaswamy charged supporters of Congress MLA from K R Puram Byrathi Basavaraj with distributing money to voters. The ruling party has been misusing its power in the byelection and has been indulging in election malpractice since Friday evening, he added.
The police, however, managed to bring the situation under control. C K Abdul Rahaman Sharief is the Congress candidate, while the JD(S) has fielded Ismail Shariff Nana.
When contacted, Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha said he has received some complaints of people distributing money in the constituency on Friday evening. Directions have been issued to take appropriate action, he added. The electorate in the constituency didn’t seem to show any enthusiasm for the byelections. Polling booths wore a deserted look early in the morning in most places. But it picked up after 10 am.
Kannada cine actor and Congress MLC Jayamala and her daughter Soundarya were not allowed to vote at a polling booth in Dollar's Colony as they had no proof of identity. They went back home and returned after some time with their electoral photo identity cards and cast their votes.
This apart, JD(S) leader B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan said he deliberately kept away from the party campaign to prevent division of Muslim votes. “Both the Congress and the JD(S) candidates are Muslims. Division of Muslim votes benefits the BJP. Hence, I kept away from the campaign to prevent the communal party from winning the byelections, he added.
Smooth voting in Bidar North
Peaceful voting took place here on Saturday for the byelection to the Bidar North Assembly seat and no untoward incident was reported. The byelection was necessitated due to demise of sitting MLA Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli on November 17 last year.
The district administration has set up a total of 214 polling booths, of which 152 have been identified as hyper-sensitive and 62 as sensitive. The polling - which began at 7 am - was dull in the early hours, but picked up later. As many as 10 candidates are in the fray.
The fight is between the contenders from the mainstream parties. The Congress has fielded Rahim Khan, BJP Prakash Khandre, JD(S) Ayaz Khan and BSP Madanna Vaijanath.
Micro-observers visited sensitive booths frequently to ensure order. The polling was video-recorded at these booths.
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