Bengaluru: People queued up early Tuesday outside the 28,269 polling stations of 14 Parliamentary constituencies to exercise their franchise in Karnataka.
Former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa along with families of his two sons, state President B.Y. Vijayendra, and Shivamogga BJP candidate B.Y. Raghavendra cast their votes at booth number 137 in Shikaripura town in Shivamogga district. Before casting their votes, the Yediyurappa family visited the Huccharaya Swamy temple and offered prayers.
Former CM and Haveri BJP candidate Basavaraj Bommai will cast his vote at booth number 112 at the Government Boy’s Kannada Medium School in Shiggaon town in Haveri district.
The voting is being held for seats in the north Karnataka region besides the hilly district of Shivamogga and the coastal district of Uttara Kannada.
Elaborate arrangements are in place for the second and final phase of polling for Karnataka’s remaining 14 Lok Sabha constituencies Tuesday, the Election Commission said.
A total of 1,40,705 polling officers, 4,027 micro observers, 45,695 police personnel, 65 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), and 2,360 sector officers have been deployed. There are 28,269 polling booths, out of which 17,643 are being covered by webcasting.
The 14 seats have 2,59,17,493 voters — 1,29,83,406 male voters and 1,29,67,709 females. There are 339 overseas voters, while those aged 18-19 years total 6.90 lakh and those above the age of 85 years are 2.29 lakh. The number of electors with physical disabilities is 3.43 lakh.
Kalaburagi constituency has the highest number of voters, at 20.98 lakh, while Uttara Kannada has the least, at 16.41 lakh.
There are 227 candidates, including 21 women, in Tuesday’s contest, with the highest number of candidates (30) contesting for the Davanagere Lok Sabha seat and the least (8) in the Bijapur constituency.
Prominent candidates include Union Minister Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad), former CMs Jagadish Shettar (Belagavi) and Basavaraj Bommai (Haveri), and former CM B.S. Yediyurappa’s son B.Y. Raghavendra (Shivamogga) (all BJP), and Congress President Mallikarjkun Kharge’s son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani (Kalaburagi).