Polling for five seats across the state began at 7 AM on Saturday and was progressing smoothly at most of the centres. A total of 31 candidates are in the fray in all five constituencies but the major battle is between the BJP and the Congress-JDS combine. Around 54 lakh voters are expected to cast their vote today in favour of their preferred candidate in about 6,450 polling stations across the three Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies of Ballari, Shivamogga, Mandya, Ramanagara and Jamkhandi.
Till 9 am, there was a poor response to the polls in Shivamogga as cloudy weather prevailed over the city. Most voters in the morning were party workers or senior citizens. Mandya too recorded a poor voting percentage with only 4 per cent of voters showing up in the two hours between 7 am and 9 am. A technical snag in the voting machine at the Kodihalli booth in Mandya led to voters being asked to leave the premises till it was resolved.
In Ballari, around 2100 registered voters at Haraginadhoni village, chose to boycott the elections demanding permanent drinking water facility for their village. Inspite of intervention by senior officials, they still refused to cast their vote. The segment sat around 4per cent turnout till 9 AM. At Jamkhandi as well, voting progressed at a slow pace in the morning.
Ugrappa approaches EC
In a late night move, the state Congress filed a complaint with the Election Commission on behalf of their Ballari candidate VS Ugrappa and requested the EC to act against the BJP for alleged malpractices. According to the complaint, the BJP had orchestrated the appearance in the media, of articles about Ugrappa's involvement in a case hearing about a motor accident which led to an order to attach some of his movable properties.