Karnataka Gears Up for Polls: 14 Seats to Witness High-Stakes Voting
Bengaluru: Out of 28 parliamentary seats in Karnataka, 14 of them are going for voting on Friday from 7 am to 6 pm in a total of 30, 602 polling stations set-up across the seats in which 2, 88, 19, 342 voters will have voting rights.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah home district-Mysuru and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar native of Ramnagar falling under Bengaluru Rural seat, is among the seats going for voting.
Elaborate arrangements have been made by the State Election Commission to hold free and fair elections in the 14 seats going for polling which are Udupi-Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga, Tumakuru, Mandya, Mysuru-Kodagu, Chamarajnagar, Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru North, Bengaluru Central, Bengaluru South, Chikkaballapura and Kolar.
In the 14 seats, a total of 2, 88, 19, 342 voters which include 1, 44, 17, 530 male voters and 1, 43, 87, 585 female voters. There are 3067 transgender voters and 11, 160 are service voters.
As manya s 15, 85, 162 voters are eligible to cast votes in Udupi-Chikkamagaluru seat, 17, 36, 610 voters in Hassan, 18, 17, 603 voters in Dakshina Kannada, 18, 56, 876 voters in Chitradurga, 16, 61, 309 electors in Tumakuru, 17, 79, 243 voters in Mandya and 20, 92, 22 voters in Mysuru-Kodagu seat.
There are 28, 02, 580 voters in Bengaluru Rural seat, 32, 14, 496 voters in Bengaluru North, 24, 33, 751 voters in Bengaluru Central, 23, 41, 759 voters in Bengaluru South, 19, 81, 347 voters in Chikkaballapura and 17, 26, 914 voters in Kolar.
Prominent nominees in the fray include Janata Dal Secular State president H.D. Kumaraswamy contesting Mandya Lok Sabha seat as JDS-Bharatiya Janata party nominee, scion of erstwhile Mysore royal family Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar in the fray from Mysuru-Kodagu seat as BJP-JDS consensus nominee, noted cardiologist and son-in-law of former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda C.N. Manjunath as BJP nominee in Bengaluru Rural and D.K. Suresh brother of Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar is the fray as Congress nominee in Bengaluru Rural seat.
Former Minister V. Somanna is in the fray as BJP-JDS consensus candidate in Tumakuru seat, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Shobha Karandlaje is the BJP-JDS nominee in Bengaluru North seat, former minister D. Sudhakar is contesting from Chikkaballapura seat and former Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol is contesting from Chitradurga, a reserved seat for Scheduled Castes.
In the 2019 parliamentary election, BJP nominees won in 25 seats, Congress won Bengaluru Rural seat, JDS in Hassan and independent nominee won Mandya seat.
However, the Congress party is banking on its 5-guarantee schemes such as free travel for women in State owned buses, upto 200 units of free power supply to eligible families, Rs 2,000 cash benefit scheme for female head of a family among others to win in about 20 seats.
The BJP-JDS leaders are confident of winning 28 seats together. BJP is contesting on 25 seats and hopes of winning all of them and JDS in the fray in three seats is also confident of winning its contested seats-Mandya, Hassan and Kolar.
