KUNDGOL, CHINCHOLI : Braving the scorching sun, people turned out in large numbers to cast their vote in the assembly byelections to Kundgol and Chincholi constituencies on Sunday. While Kundgol registered its highest turnout of 81.33 per cent, bettering the previous record of 79.10 per cent in 1972, Chincholi too recorded a high percentage of 70.30. In Chincholi, the total number of voters was 1.93 lakh while in Kundgol, it was 1.89 lakh.
Counting is on May 23 along with the 28 Lok Sabha seats for which polling was held in two phases on April 18 and April 23. The polls were by and large peaceful except for some snags reported in VVPATs. In Chincholi, 93 VVPATs had to be changed.
The Chincholi bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of Umesh Jadhav, who quit Congress and joined BJP and contested the recent Lok Sabha polls from Gulbarga, while Kundgol seat fell vacant following the death of minister C S Shivalli. While Shivalli’s wife Kusumavati Shivalli (Congress) is pitted against BJP’s S I Chikkanagoudar in Kundgol, Umesh Jadhav’s son Avinash Jadhav (BJP) is taking on Subash Rathod (Congress) in Chincholi.
Bypolls crucial for both the ruling alliance and the opposition party
A three-time legislator, Chikkanagoudar lost to Shivalli by a narrow margin of 633 votes in the May 2018 state assembly elections.The bypolls are crucial for both the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance and the opposition BJP with the latter maintaining that a victory for it would boost its numbers in the assembly and have political implications.In Kundgol, though voting was not brisk in the morning, it gradually picked up and saw a record turnout by the closing hours. There are 17 candidates in fray in Chincholi in Kalaburagi district and 8 in Kundgol in Dharwad district.
In Chincholi, barring stray incidents of violence in some villages, the polling was by and large peaceful, according to Deputy Commissioner and District Election officer R Venkateshkumar. The Sakhi polling booth experiment to attract a great number of women voters saw a good turnout, he said.
According to sources, most people of Mandgol Thanda of Chincholi taluk had to walk a distance of 3.5km to cast their vote at Khuni Thanda. This is because the government did not arrange a vehicle for them. Congress candidate Subhash Rathod who spoke to The New Indian Express said that the high percentage of voting would help him in winning the elections. BJP candidate Avinash Jadhav was not available for comment.
Subhash Rathod exercised his franchise in Sheri Bada Thanda while Avinash Jadhav castt his vote in Bedsoor Thanda. The EVMS and VVPATS will be brought from all the 241 polling booths of Chincholi constituency to Kalaburagi and stored in the strong room situated in Gulbarga University under tight security.