Bengaluru: Voting began at the Belgaum Lok Sabha seat and Basavakalyan and Maski (reserved) meeting seats in Karnataka, where by-elections were held on April 17, a polling official said Sunday.
Voting started at 08:00 for the Belgaum parliamentary seat in Belgaum, the Basavakalyan seat in the Bidar district and the Maski (planned tribe) in the Raichur district in the northern part of the state amid strict security and under Covidge-induced safety guidelines, ”the official told IANS by telephone.
To maintain social distance, counts are counted in 17 halls in Belgaum and in 12 halls in Basavakalyan and Maski.
“According to the procedure, the ballot papers are counted first in all 3 seats and votes in EVMs (electronic voting machines) will be counted on 34 tables in Belgaum and 12 tables in each of the two meeting seats,” the official said.
For Belgaum seating, 964 were received, although 8,047 ballot papers were issued to voters for the service. For Basavakalyan 199 were issued and 49 received, while for Maski 14 were issued but no one was received.
‘There were also postal votes issued to absentee voters, including Covid patients, senior citizens over the age of 80 and the physically handicapped, ”the official said.
Of 6,435 ballot papers issued to absent voters in Belgaum, 5,831 were received, while 1,176 were issued in Basavakalyan, 983 were received and 273 in Maski and 246 were received.
Of 18,13,567 voters in Belgaum, 10,16,025 voted, resulting in 56.02 percent of the vote.
Of 2,39,782 voters in Basavakalyan, 1,47,647 voted, resulting in 61.58 percent of the vote.
Of 2,06,429 voters in Maski, 1,45,458 voted, resulting in 70.40 percent of the vote.
A total of 30 candidates, including 10 in Belgaum, 12 in Basavakalyan and 8 in Maski contested. Of them, 26 are men and 4 women.
There are also 5 independents in Belgaum and Maski and 4 in Basavakalyan.
The by-elections were held to fill vacancies caused by the death of Foreign Minister Suresh Angadi and the BJP member in Belgaum and the death of Congressman B. Narayan Rao in Basavakalyan and due to the disqualification of Pratapgouda Patil in Maski.
Angadi, a four-time Lok Sabha member of the region, has died as a result of Covid on 23 September 2020 in New Delhi, while Rao also died due to the infection on 24 September 2020 in Bengaluru.
In Belgaum, BJP Mangala, widow of Angadi, asked to retain the seat, while Congress retained Mallamma, widow of Rao, for Basavakalyan.
Congress has put its acting president and sugar baron Satish Jarkiholi against Mangala.
Satish, 58, is a Yemakanmardi seat legislator in the state border district.
Satish is also the younger brother of the infected former BJP minister, Ramesh Jarkiholi, who is embroiled in the sleaze CD that the state recently rocked.
Patil, who defected from Congress to BJP in November 2019, again disputed to keep Maski on the lotus symbol.
Although the opposition did not dispute Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in Belgaum and Maski, she introduced Syed Yasrab Ali Quadri in Basavakalyan, while BJP instituted Saharanu Salaga to remove the seat from Congress.
Source: Telangana Today