Voting begins in Karnataka amid tight security

Bengaluru, May 12 (IANS) Voting began across Karnataka on Saturday to elect its 15th legislative assembly amid tight security and heightened vigil.

"A single-phase polling began at 7.00 a.m. in 222 of the 224 assembly constituencies, including 36 reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and 15 for the Scheduled Tribes (ST)," said an official.

Polling in Bengaluru's Raja Rajeshwari Nagar segment has been postponed to May 28 in the voter ID cards case and countermanded in the city's Jayanagar seat following the death of BJP contestant B.N. Vijaya Kumar on May 4.

The state has over 5.07-crore electorate, including 2.62-crore men and 2.5-crore women. New voters are 15,42,000 in the 18-19 age group.

Voting is being held in 58,008 polling stations of 30 districts across the state, with 600 of them as pink booths, manned by all-women personnel, and 28 ethnic booths.