Karnataka: BJP, Congress in straight contest as Jayanagar goes to polls today
BENGALURU:As many as 2.03 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in Jayanagar constituency which goes to the polls on Monday. Jayanagar is one of the two constituencies in the State where polling was deferred by the Election Commission. The EC had countermanded the polls in the constituency following the demise of BJP candidate B N Vijayakumar.
Polling percentage in the constituency is expected to be below the State average of 72 per cent recorded on May 12 - when 222 constituencies had gone for polls. Rajarajeshwari Nagar - the other constituency where elections were held recently on May 28, had recorded 54 per cent voting.
The constituency is witnessing a straight contest between BJP and Congress candidates - B N Prahlad and Sowmya Reddy respectively - with an outside chance for independent candidate Ravikrishna Reddy. JD(S), in the run up to the elections, had withdrawn its candidate Kalegowda and decided to back the Congress candidate on June 6.
Following the demise of Vijayakumar, dissent surfaced among BJP corporators of the constituency over the selection of candidate. While few of the corporators were aspirants for the ticket, BJP decided to field Prahlad, brother of Vijayakumar following a social media campaign to nominate one the family members of the deceased as the candidate. Both Prahlad and Sowmya Reddy will contest elections for the first time in Jayanagar, where BJP has won since 2008. Social activist Ravikrishna Reddy is being considered as a dark horse.
Counting on June 13
Polling will be held between 7 am and 6 pm on Monday and 19 candidates are in the fray. There will be a total of 216 polling stations, of which five are Pink booths - where only women polling personnel will be deployed. Web-casting will be done from 50 stations and 60 micro-observers are deployed to cover critical polling stations and cluster booths.Counting will be on June 13 from 8 am at SSMRV College.
BJP dominance in jayanagar
The constituency consists of seven wards - Pattabhinagar, Byrasandra, Jayanagar East, Gurappana Palya, J P Nagar, Sarakki and Shakambari Nagar. While six of the wards have BJP corporators, one ward has a Congress corporator. The constituency has Brahmins, Reddy Vokkaligas and Muslims in sizable numbers. While other communities are distributed in the six wards of the constituency, Gurappana Palya has a large number of Muslim voters.
2 EVMs in each booth
Each polling booth to have two voting machines - one with names of 15 candi dates and the other with 4.
5 Pink polling stations
Model polling station - Booth no. 169 - Indira Priyadarshini Girls High School, 9th Cross, 3rd Phase, JP Nagar
Prohibitory orders in place
Prohibitory orders will be in effect from 6am till 6 pm on Tuesday and from 6am till midnight on Wednesday, while ban on sale of liquor will be in effect till Monday midnight and 6am to midnight on Wednesday.