Polling in the election to the North East Teachers Constituency of the Legislative Council went off peacefully on Wednesday. Though polling was slow in the beginning, it slowly picked up by noon and registered a voter turnout of 73.32 % by the end of the process at 5 p.m.
Of the 29,236 voters, 21,436 exercised their franchise in 147 polling stations established across Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal and Ballari districts. As many as 15,058 men voters of the 18,949 and 6,378 women voters of the 10,285 cast their votes.
In terms of voter turnout, Yadgir was leading with 78.33 % at 4 p.m. followed by Koppal with 77.87 %, Raichur 72.31 %, Ballari 70.53 % and Bidar with 70.50%. Kalaburagi was at the bottom of the with 50.59 %.
At the end of polling, all districts improved their voting percentage and most of them maintained their positions. As per the final data provided by the Regional Commissioner’s office, Yadgir recorded 81.59 % to remain on top of the list followed by Koppal with 80.86 %, Raichur 74.97 %, Bidar 74.40 %, Ballari 74.34 % and Kalaburagi 67.72 %.
Due to the COVID-19 situation, the polling staff screened voters for temperature, sprayed sanitiser into their palms and gave them hand gloves before allowing them inside polling stations.
Regional Commissioner N.V. Prasad visited a few polling stations in Kalaburagi in the morning. Bidar Deputy Commissioner Ramachandran R paid a visit to a polling station at Janwada in Bidar and inspected the polling process. Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner Vijay Jyothsna visited a few polling stations in Kalaburagi and took stock of the situation.
As polling ended at 5 p.m. without any untoward incident, the polling staff transported the ballot boxes to the designated strong-rooms. There are five candidates in the fray in the constituency: Sharanappa Mattur of the Congress, Shashil G. Namoshi of the BJP, Timmayya Purle of the Janata Dal(S), Vatal Nagaraj of the Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha and Independent candidate Chandrakanth Singhe.
