Polling for the single-phase elections in 28 Lok Sabha constituencies of Karnataka, which began on a moderate to brisk note on Thursday, reached 33.13 per cent by 1 pm.
According to Election Commission, polling in Dakshina Kannada constituency had crossed 47.2 per cent while it hovered around 18 per cent in Shimoga and Chitradurga Parliamentary constituencies by 1 pm.
After polling began at 7 am, the percentage of votes cast had reached 6.62 per cent by 9 pm before reaching 18.82 per cent at 11 am and 33.13 per cent at 1 pm.
Election Commission officials said one poll official had died in Tumkur and another in Belgaum. While 65-year-old Nanjundappa died after casting his vote in Kengeri on the outskirts of Bangalore, a 70-year-old woman had died in Dakshina Kannada district.
Though polling appeared moderate across Bangalore, parts of Bangalore South parliamentary constituency, where BJP leader Ananthakumar is pitted against Congress candidate Nandan Nilekani, former UIDAI chief, saw huge crowds outside polling booths.
Voters were seen queuing up outside the booths in Padmanabhanagar well before 7 am, the scheduled start of polling. Many booths in Hanumanthanagar and Uttarahalli recorded a good turnout since morning with voters, many of whom stood for more than half an hour, describing the early morning rush as “unusual”. The queues, however, appeared to come down after 11.30 am.
Meanwhile, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT), which will print out the choice made by the voters, was also tried out in Bangalore South constituency with the officials displaying banners outside the booth to explain its working.
In Bangalore North parliamentary constituency people queued up outside polling booths to cast their votes while police and election commission officials in Kodigehalli complained that they had not been provided any refreshments by the authorities.
Voting was held up for more than half an hour in one booth in Impact College in Kodigehalli as one Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) was not working. Several senior citizens including D B Subbegowda, 84, and B Leelavathi, 80, turned up at the polling booths in Kodigehalli in Bangalore North to cast their votes.
In many parts of Bangalore Central constituency, there was confusion with several people, who were recently enrolled as voters, trying to locate their polling booths.
With each booth having been divided into two or three “parts” of voters’ list, polling officials directed voters to check for their names in the “parts” of the lists available with the volunteers of political parties seated outside.
Complaints of names going missing from the voters’ list were heard from people in Tilaknagar and Yarab Nagar in Bangalore.
While former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and his Chennamma cast their vote in Hassan, former Union Minister M Veerappa Moily voted in Chikkaballapur and former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa cast his vote in Shimoga.
Celebrities including actors Jayamala, Ganesh, Jaggesh, Duniya Vijay and Bharathi Vishnuvardhan cast their votes. Litterateurs Jnanpith awardee Chandrashekar Kambar voted in Banashankari and Infosys chief N R Narayanamurthy cast his vote in J P Nagar.
