Bengaluru, Nov 9 The ruling BJP and opposition Congress and JD-S in Karnataka are bracing up for the vote count on Tuesday in the two crucial Assembly and four Council segments where by-elections were held on November 3 and October 28 to fill vacancies caused for various reasons.
"Elaborate arrangements have been made for counting of votes in RR Nagar (Rajarajeshwarinagar) assembly seat in southwest Bengaluru and Sira assembly seat in Tumakuru district where the by-elections were held on November 3," an Election Commission official told here.
A record 82.31 per cent voting was registered in Sira while it was only 45.24 per cent polling in RR Nagar.
Biennial elections for 4 Council seats were held on October 28 in the Karnataka West Graduates, Karnataka North-East Teachers, Bangalore Teachers and Karnataka South-East Graduates constituencies.
In West Graduates, 70.11 per cent voting was recorded, followed by 75 per cent in South-East Graduates, 73.32 per cent in North-East Teachers and 66 per cent in Bangalore Teachers.
"Counting for West Graduates is at Dharwad in the state's northwest region, North-East Teachers at Kalaburagi in the state's northern region, Bangalore Teachers and North-East Teachers in Bengaluru," said the official.
Though 16 were in fray in RR Nagar and 15 in Sira, the main contest in both the seats is triangular, as BJP, Congress and JD-S fielded candidates against each other.
By-election in RR Nagar was caused by the resignation of N. Muniratna in July 2019, who is the BJP's candidate after he defected from the Congress in November 2019.
Congress fielded a greenhorn H. Kusuma, widow of former IAS officer D.K. Ravi, and V. Krishna Murthy is the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) contestant.
As the constituency has a large number of Vokkaligas, a politically dominant community in the state, the Congress and JD-S candidates are Vokkaligas, while Muniratna is a Naidu.
In Sira, about 120km northwest of Bengaluru, the JD-S fielded Ammajamma, widow of the regional party's B. Satyanarayana, whose death on August 5 after prolonged illness caused the by-election.
The Congress named its former minister T.B. Jayachandra, who lost to Satyanarayana in the May 2018 assembly elections, while Rajesh Gowda is the BJP contestant.
Around 6.76-lakh electorateAwere eligible to vote in the twin by-elections. In RR Nagar, only 45.24 per cent of the 4.6-lakh voters exercised their franchise, while in Sira, a whopping 82.31 per cent of the 2.15-lakh voters cast their ballot.
In the Council biennial elections, 40 candidates from the BJP, Congress, JD-S and independents were in the fray for the 4 seats.
Of the retired candidates, R. Chowda Reddy Thoopalli of JD-S re-contested from South-East Graduates, S.V. Sankanur of BJP from West Graduates, Sharanappa Mattur of Congress from North-East Teachers and Puttanna of BJP from Bangalore Teachers constituencies.
In South-East Graduates, 15 contested, including Chidanand Gowda of BJP and Ramesh Babu of Congress.
Two BJP rebels AD.T. Srinivasa and Haraluru Lepakshi were also in the fray as independents in South-East Graduates.
In West Graduates, 11 were in fray, including R.M. Kuberappa (Congress) and K.S. Channappa (JD-S).
JD-S, however, has disowned Chennappa and is backing independent Basavaraj Gurikar in West Graduates contest.
In North-East Teachers, 5 contested, including Timmayya Purle (JD-S), Shashil Namoshi (BJP) and Vatal Nagaraj, president of the regional outfit Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha.ANamoshi had won from the seat twice earlier.
In Bangalore Teachers, 9 were in fray, including R. Praveen Peter (Congress) and A.P. Ranganath (JD-S).
In all, 2,34,718 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in 549 polling booths across the 4 constituencies.
Of the 75 seats in the Council, 25 are elected from the assembly, 25 from local bodies across the state, 7 each from Graduates and Teachers constituencies and 11 are nominated by the state governor on the recommendation of the chief minister or the state cabinet.
In the 75-member Council, the BJP has 28 seats, Congress 27, JD-S 14, 1 independent and 1 chairman, while 4 are vacant./Eom/660 words.
( With inputs from IANS )
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