Barring a few incidents, polling was almost peaceful in the Assembly election held in Periyapatna costituency on Tuesday.
Earlier, the election had t0 be put off following the death of BJP candidate Sannamogegowda. The constituency registered about 83 per cent polling, Election Commission officials said.
Congress candidate K Venkatesh is seeking re-election. Counting of votes will take place on May 31.
The polling was delayed for sometime at Pete (Periyapatna) and Bettadapura booths due to some technical problem in EVMs for about half an hour. However, it was set right after sometime.
At Punad village, police resorted to mild lathi-charge to disperse a group of 20 people who had gathered close to the polling station. When the people did not move away despite being asked to do so several times, the police wielded the batons.
At Kittur, Assistant Commissioner Vinota Priya got the excess chairs being used by the booth agents removed and ordered the police not to allow unauthorised persons enter the restricted area which is 100 metres from the polling station.
Young and old voters were seen rushing to the polling stations to exercise their franchise. The old were seen assisted by their children or grandchildren to reach the polling station.
Though polling slowed down after 1 pm, it picked up after an hour. Tension prevailed for sometime near a polling booth at Chouli village as Congress workers alleged that ASI Mariswamy had aligned with the JD (S). However, the situation came under control when SP R Dileep visited the spot.