Amid the polling in the Karnataka Assembly elections, violent incidents were reported from at least three places on Wednesday, news agency PTI reported citing police sources. At Masabinal village in Basavana Bagewadi taluk of Vijayapura district, several angry villagers destroyed some electronic voting machines, VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines and damaged the vehicles of polling officers, after "rumours" that the officials were "changing" the EVMs and VVPATs.
In Padmanabhanagar constituency in Bengaluru, some youth armed with sticks attacked their political rivals in a polling booth at Papaiah Garden. They went on a rampage in which a few women who were standing in queue to vote sustained injuries, the sources said. At Sanjeevarayanakote in Ballari district, some Congress and the BJP workers came to blows.
23 Arrested After Poll Official Manhandled, Ballot Units Damaged In Masabinal Village
Villagers of Masabinala in Vijayapura district stopped a poll duty vehicle carrying electronic voting machines (EVMs), manhandled an officer and damaged control and ballot units on Wednesday following which 23 people were arrested, the Election Commission said, as reported by PTI. The villagers stopped a section officer's vehicle which was carrying reserved EVMs for the Assembly elections and damaged two control and ballot units each and three VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail), the EC said in a statement.
"Sector officer was manhandled. 23 people arrested", the EC said, adding, top district officials rushed to the village, which comes under Basavana Bagewadi Assembly segment, as reported by PTI. According to Police sources, the villagers' "action" came after "rumours" that officials were "changing" the EVMs and VVPATs.
Meanwhile, in Padmanabhanagar constituency here, some youth armed with sticks attacked their political rivals in a polling booth at Papaiah Garden. They went on a rampage in which a few women standing in queue to vote sustained injuries, the sources said. In another incident at Sanjeevarayanakote in Ballari district, some Congress and the BJP workers came to blows.
The polling for 224 Karnataka Assembly seats began at 7 am amid tight security and will continue till 6 pm. According to the Election Commission of India, the majority mark to form the government is 113 seats. A total of 42,48,028 new voters have been registered to vote for the assembly elections. The high-voltage campaign for the assembly elections in Karnataka ended on Monday. The counting of votes will take place on May 13.
Karnataka has recorded a voter turnout of about 37.25 per cent till 1 PM on Wednesday in the polls to elect representatives to the 224-member State Legislative Assembly.
In the first six hours of polling, which began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm, the coastal district of Udupi recorded the highest turnout of 47.79 per cent, with the the lowest polling in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) central limits (parts of Bengaluru city) at 29.41 per cent, election officials said.
The State is mainly witnessing a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular). Deve Gowda, AICC president M Mallikarjun Kharge, state Congress chief D K Shivakumar and BJP State unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel were among those who cast their ballot.
A total of 5.3 crore (5,31,33,054 to be precise) electors are eligible to cast their vote in 58,545 polling stations across the state, where 2,615 candidates are in the fray. Karnataka had recorded a voter turnout of 72.36 per cent in the 2018 Assembly polls. The BJP had then emerged as the single largest party by winning 104 seats, followed by Congress 80 and JD(S) 37; there was one independent member, while the BSP and Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) had one legislator each.