Brisk to moderate voting in K'taka bypolls

Bengaluru, Dec 5 (IANS) Voting in Karnataka's 15 Assembly by-elections on Thursday gathered momentum and polling was brisk to moderate in many segments since afternoon, an official said.

"Voting has been brisk to moderate in most of the Assembly segments since afternoon registering 47 per cent average at 3:00 p.m., with highest in Chikkaballapur in the southern region and lowest in K.R. Pura in Bengaluru East," poll official G. Jadiyappa told IANS.

Barring glitches in the EVMs (electronic voting machines) and voters names missing in the electoral list in some polling stations in all the assembly seats, voting has been peaceful amid tight security.

"As voting percentage has been surging since post-noon in constituencies other than in Bengaluru, higher turnout will be advantage to us as the electorate tend to favour the ruling party in by-elections," BJP's state unit spokesman G. Madhusudan told IANS here.

Polling percentage at 3:00 p.m. in Athani was 56.05, Kagwad 51.41, Gokak 53.3, Yellapur 56.21, Hirekerur 56.6, Ranibennur 53.50, Vijayanagara 47.38, Yeshvanthapura 38.83, Mahalakshmi Layout 30.73, Shivajinagar 32.72, Hoskote 54.12, K.R. Pete 59.86 and Hunasur 57.44.

"Voting has always been moderate to heavy in semi-urban and rural areas unlike in cities where urban apathy to voting has been the bane of elections in the past too," lamented Madhusudan.

Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa appealed to the electorate to exercise their right to vote in large numbers and strengthen democracy.

In a related development, Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi said the ruling party was poised to majority of the Assembly seats for its government to survive and continue in power till 2023 when the 5-year term ends.

"As our government has been serving the people well, especially in providing relief to the flood-hit, they want Yediyurappa to continue as chief minister. Hence they will vote in favour of our candidates in the by-elections," Savadi told reporters after casting his vote at a polling stations in Naganur village of Athani in Belagavi district.

The 15 constituencies have nearly 38 lakh eligible voters, including 19.25 lakh men and 18.52 lakh women.

"The Election Commission has declared paid leave for the voters working in public or private offices to exercise franchise in their polling stations," asserted the official.

As many as 165 candidates, including 126 Independents and 9 women are in the fray in the 15 Assembly seats.

The BJP and the opposition Congress are contesting in all the 15 Assembly seats, while the JD-S only in 12 seats.

The 3,185 polling stations have a total of 8,326 ballot units and 8,186 controlling units and 7,876 VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) for casting the ballots.

The vote count is on December 9.

The outcome of the bye-elections will decide the survival and continuation of the four-month-old BJP government in the southern state.

The ruling party, which has 105 members, including one independent but excluding the speaker, needs to win seven more seats to have a majority (112) in the 223-member Assembly, with two vacant and one nominated with voting right.

The Congress has 66 members, JD-S 34 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) one.

Though there are 17 vacancies in the 225-member Assembly, including one nominated from the Anglo-Indian community with voting rights, bye-elections in two seats -- Muski (Raichur district) and R.R. Nagar (Bengaluru) have been withheld due to litigation in the Karnataka High Court over their results in the May 2018 Assembly elections.

The BJP has fielded 11 Congress and three JD-S defectors on joining the ruling party on November 14 after the Supreme Court on November 13 allowed them to re-contest though it upheld their disqualification by former Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar on July 25-28.

The ruling party has fielded its former city corporator Sarvana from the prestigious Shivajinagara constituency in Bengaluru central after the party's high command declined to admit former Congress leader Roshan Baig, who represented the seat seven times.