Voters turnout at the end of polling today for the 16 Lok Sabha Elections in Karnataka stood at 67.67 percent till 6 p.m. according to the Election Commission. Four constituencies that went to polls in Bengaluru city recorded a voter turnout of 54.35 percent till the end of voting.
Bengaluru’s four constituencies – North, South, Central and Rural – recorded 50.03 %, 53.53 %, 49.76%, and 64.09% polling respectively. Polling was largely peaceful across polling booths in the state. The voting percentage during the previous General Elections held in 2014 in the four constituencies were recorded as 56.53 %, 55.75 %, 55.64 % and 66.45 % in the North, South, Central and Rural Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.
While many voters’ names were missing from the electoral rolls across the city, incidents of EVM malfunction were also reported from some polling booths. People also complained of inadequate facilities at the polling booths like missing canopies, no toilets and unavailability of drinking water. While many NGOs and citizen groups were found ferrying the voters to polling booths, others had to stand in long queues, awaiting their turn to vote.
“There are no shelters for people standing in the queues outside the polling stations. It is extremely difficult for aged people to stand in this heat for long hours,” said K. S. Gupta 61, who came to vote at Yediyur ward 167 in Padmanabhanagar, Bengaluru South Parliamentary Constituency.
Across the state, voting was held for 14 Lok Sabha seats with the fate of 241 candidates hanging in the balance, according to a report in Business Today. The state saw intense campaigning in Mandya where former PM and JD (S) supremo HD Deve Gowda’s grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy is contesting against an independent candidate, widow of former Union Minister M A Ambareesh, Sumalatha.
Other prominent politicians in the fray today were HD Deve Gowda from Tumkur, his grandson and Prajwal Revanna from Mandya and Hassan respectively. Union Minister Sadananda Gowda was contesting from Bengaluru North while Congress leaders Veerappa Moily and KH Muniyappa were contesting from Chikkaballapur and Kolar respectively.
According to a report in Business Today, of all the seats which went to polls today, BJP and Congress had won six seats each in the 2014 elections while JD (S) had won two.
In the next phase of polling, all the remaining 14 Parliamentary Constituencies in the state is scheduled to go to polls on April 23 2019. The Parliamentary Constituencies going to polls in the third phase of polling are Chikkodi, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davanagere, Shimoga.
In the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections across the country, 115 Lok Sabha Constituencies will go to polls in 14 States and Union Territories (UTs). The states going to polls are Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Results for the 16th Lok Sabha Elections will be announced on May 23, 2019.
