The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Peaceful polling in all five constituencies

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Friday, Jun 27, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Peaceful polling in all five constituencies

Special Correspondent

H.K. Patil, Shashil Namoshi and Vatal Nagaraj are prominent candidates in the fray

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Making their choice: Voters standing in a queue at a polling station at Malleswaram in Bangalore to exercise their franchise on Thursday.

BANGALORE: Elections to five seats in the Legislative Council passed off peacefully on Thursday.

Biennial elections were held for four constituencies: Karnataka Southeast Graduates, Karnataka West Graduates, Karnataka Northeast Teachers and Bangalore Teachers.

There is also one casual vacancy in the Council from the Dakshina Kannada Local Authorities constituency following the death of Blasius M. D’Souza, former Minister, whose term would have expired on January 5, 2010.

As many as 95 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the Dakshina Kannada Local Authorities constituency. Seventy-six per cent polling was recorded in Southeast Graduates’ constituency, 61 per cent in Bangalore Teachers constituency, 70 per cent in Northeast Teachers constituency and 73 per cent in West Graduates constituency, according to officials at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer here.

The terms of H.S. Shivashankar (Janata Dal-S), H.K. Patil (Congress), Shashil G. Namoshi (BJP) and Puttanna (Janata Dal-S) expire on June 30.

The police resorted to lathi-charge at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVEC) at K.R. Circle when a person attempted to indulge in bogus voting, the officials said.

Mr. Patil, Mr. Namoshi and Vatal Nagaraj are the prominent candidates in the fray. Mr. Patil, who lost the recent Assembly elections, is contesting from West Graduates’ constituency, Mr. Namoshi from Northeast constituency and Mr. Nagaraj from Bangalore Teachers segment.

Long queues

Dharwad Staff Correspondent reports:

Polling in West Graduates constituency concluded peacefully in the districts of Haveri, Gadag, Dharwad and Uttara Kannada.

Although polling began at 8 a.m., it was only after 10 a.m. that voters started coming in good numbers and by noon there were long queues in front of many polling stations.

Commotion prevailed for a while at the polling station at KE Board’s School in Dharwad, where a person was accused of casting a proxy vote.

The incident led to BJP and Congress activists trying to enter the polling station to seek clarification. The activists entered into an argument with the police officials after they were stopped from entering the restricted area.

Assistant Commissioner Mahantesh Bilagi brought the situation under control. Mr. Bilagi said that a graduate voter, Ramanagouda Marigoudar, was accused of proxy voting.

“However, on scrutiny it was found that he had entered the polling station with a slip containing the wrong serial number and there was also a slight variation in his signature, which resulted in the confusion. The voter had valid documents to prove his identity and he had his name in the voters’ list also”, he said. Ultimately, Ramanagouda was not allowed to vote as there was variation in his signature, and then the polling process continued.

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