70% Voter Turnout in Karnataka Elections

70% of the almost 5 crore registered voters - 2.54 crore men and 2.44 crore women - voted today in the Karnataka elections to decide the fate of 222 out of 224 seats in the state. 15.42 lakh among those registered were first time voters aged 18-19. According to reports, over 4,500 of those identifying themselves as transgender had also registered to vote this time.

Voting in two of the constituencies, RR nagar and Jayanagar, had been deferred. In case of RR nagar, the election was postponed after almost 10,000 voter ID cards were found in an apartment owned by a BJP leader, while in Jayanagar, it was as a result of the death of a BJP MLA and candidate B N Vijay Kumar that the polling had been deferred.

While Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had expressed confidence that his Congress party will retain power, the BJP and JD(S) are also sure of winning this election, which was held under the watch of 82,157 personnels deployed across the state, including DSPs, civil defense, home Guards, forest guards and watchers, according to First Post’s report.

“I will win in both constituencies, easily,” the incumbent Chief Minister, who contested from Badami and Chamundeshwari seats, saidyesterday. In Badami, the scam-accused mining Baron Janardhan Reddy’s close aide and “adopted brother”, Sreeramulu, contested against Siddaramaiah.

Apart from the clout of Reddy brothers, Sreeramulu - who, the party has hinted, will be made the deputy CM in case of a victory - also seemed to be counting on the blessings of a cow. This morning, before voting, Sreeramulu performed a “Gau Puja”.

G.T. Deve Gowda of the JD(S) was Siddaramaiah’s challenger in Chamundeshwari. While JD(S) leaders claimed that they reject both the national parties, and appealed the voters to choose the JD(S)-BSP alliance instead, Siddaramaiah said, “BJP is openly supporting JD(S)”, the citing the fact that BJP has fielded a”dummy candidate” in Chamundeshwari. He has also accused that JD(S) has “distributed lot of money” in Chamundeswari.

All the exit polls have predicted that the highest number of votes will be bagged by the BJP, followed by Congress and JD(S).

The voting was disrupted in some constituencies by clashes between workers of competing parties. BJP workers barged into a polling booth in Yelahanka Assembly constituency in Bangalore, accusing that JD(S) workers were sitting inside the booth, canvassing for their party candidate. Police intervened and pacified the tensions between the two groups to allow the voting to continue, the Hindu reported.

Polling was also disturbed in Marapalli village of the Chincholi constituency in Kalaburagi district by clashing BJP and Congress activists, who were dispersed by the police by resorting to baton-charge. Clashes were also reported between Congress and BJP workers 100 metres from a polling booth in Hampi Nagar over an allegation that congress workers had beaten up a BJP corporator.

Following the arrest of a BJP worker in Hebbal area of Bangalore for threatening the voters to not dare cast their votes before the local BJP MLA Narayanaswamy had cast his, the poll staff were abused by Narayanaswamy, according to a News 18 report.

Voting at one of the booths in this constituency was suspended after many complained that the VVPAT receipt they got were different from the party for which they had casted vote on EVM. Due to a technical problem in the control unit, voting was suspended for an hour at another booth in Belur constituency.

In the Hunasikatti village of Kittur, residents gathered at the polling station and boycotted the elections, demanding that the in-laws of a pregnant woman who was murdered be arrested. 2000 of the 3500 residents of Tarkaspet village in Chittapur taluk also boycotted the elections, reportedly“to mark their demand for Gram Panchayat headquarters for their village.”