Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency from where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is seeking re-election to the Assembly recorded a voter turnout of 76.05% during polling on Saturday.
Mr. Siddaramaiah was engaged in a keen electoral battle with MLA and JD(S) candidate G.T. Deve Gowda.
The voter turnout of 76.05% was marginally higher than the 2013 poll percentage of 73.90.
Out of the total electorate of 2,95,815 voters, as many as 2,24,968 voters, including 1,14,785 men, 1,10,182 women and one ‘Other’ (sexual minorities) had taken part in the polling process on Saturday.
During the 2013 elections to the Assembly from Chamundeshwari when Mr. Siddaramaiah was not in the fray, a total of 1,76,962 votes had been polled against a total electorate of 2,39,448.
Though the electoral battle in Chamundeshwari was billed as a high-profile contest with Mr. Siddaramaiah in the fray against his friend-turned-foe G.T. Deve Gowda, polling was by and large peaceful. The police said no major incidents were reported from any part of the constituency, where polling was held between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. across 335 booths amid tight security.
Long queues were witnessed outside polling booths in Gungral Chatra, which is JD(S) candidate G.T. Deve Gowda’s native place and Siddalingapura on the Mysuru-Bengaluru highway.
Polling appeared to be brisk at Naganahalli on the outskirts of Mysuru, which witnessed a clash between Congress and JD(S) workers recently, following a visit by actor Darshan.
In Hale Kesare, where Mr. Siddaramaiah had goten into a spat with a gram panchayat member and supporter of JD(S), a crowd gathered outside the polling booth soon after polling began and complained that they had not been provided the voting slips that enable poll officials to locate their names in the electoral rolls. The protesters alleged that the authorities had tried to prevent them from voting by not providing the voting slips as they were presumed to be the supporters of a particular party.
However, the police present there managed to disperse the crowd.
