Karnataka Live: Minister gets EVM shifted for vaastu, official transferred

3:50 pm: Minister gets EVMs moved for ‘vaastu’, official transferred An election official changed the direction of EVM allegedly at the request of candidate and Union Minister K H Muniyappa to make it “Vastu” compliant, following which he was shifted from a polling centre in Kolar Lok Sabha constituency, reports PTI. “The official has been shifted from Harohalli polling centre, which is in the city, for changing the direction of the Electronic Voting Machine on Muniyappa’s request to make it Vastu complaint,” Kolar Deputy Commissioner and Returning Officer D K Ravi told reporters here. Changing the direction or position of the EVM is unlawful, he said. As soon as Muniyappa entered the polling centre to cast his vote, he was displeased to see the EVM facing South and placed it in North-Eastern direction with the help of his supporters, Ravi said. 2:15 pm: AAP alleges four workers beaten up by minister’s supporters AAP today alleged that four of its workers were assaulted by supporters of Karnataka Minister DK Shivakumar during voting near Ramanagar in Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency, where his brother is the Congress candidate. “Some 100 Congress workers, supporters of Shivakumar, assaulted four of our party workers at Mayaganahalli near Ramanagar,” AAP Bangalore Rural candidate Ravikrishna Reddy alleged. Shivakumar’s brother D K Suresh, who had won Bangalore Rural bypoll following the resignation of JDS chief HD Kumaraswamy after he became an MLA in May Assembly elections last year, is seeking re-election. Reddy alleged AAP campaign agent Chandan was attacked after he tried to take pictures when money was being allegedly distributed to voters. “They also attacked three other AAP volunteers who suffered injuries,” he said. 1:40 pm: Only 26 percent turnout till 12 pm Around 26 per cent of the 4.62 crore electorate have exercised their franchise till around noon in the single-phase polls today in Karnataka, where the ruling Congress and BJP are battling it out in a hot contest for 28 seats. Voting across the state got off to a moderate to brisk start, as it began at 7 am and was reported at about 10 per cent in the first two hours and reached around 25 per cent in five hours, officials said. Two officials on poll duty died of heart attack in Belgaum and Tumkur districts, police said. 12:45 pm: Netas vote, then upload selfies If there’s one thing that’s cooler than voting in poll season, it’s uploading a selfie of yourself after you’ve voted. Here’s our pick of the biggest ones so far: 

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  10:30 am: Not so great turnout in Karnataka so far Voting began on a moderate note this morning in the single-phase elections for 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka amid tight security. In the initial two hours, the voting percentage across the state hovered around 10 per cent, officials said, adding, polling had been peaceful so far. 10:10 am: Yeddyurappa votes, says BJP will win 20 seats Despite all that has happened over the past two years with the BJP, BS Yeddyurappa was confident of the party winning a majority of the seats in the state. He claimed that people in his constituency of Shimoga were very happy with him and he was confident that he would win. “We are going to win a minimum of 15 seats,” he told reporters 10:00 am: Yeddy, Nilekani, Kumar cast their ballot, hope for the best All the biggest names in this elections have cast their ballot and expectedly all of them believe they will win. One of the keenly watched battles in the state is in Bangalore where Ananth Kumar of the BJP is facing off against Nandan Nilekani of the Congress. Kumar seemed pretty confident that the BJP was on the road to victory, in his seat at least. “People will vote for me for the sixth time,” he told CNN-IBN and also said the voters would want the Modi-Ananth Kumar combination to improve not only Bangalore but Bharat as well. “This election is going to be challenging for the Congress as they are going to go down the drain going to get less than hundred seats,” he said with confidence. Nilekani on the other hand was confident of capitalising on a wave against his opponent. “There is  a great desire for change …I find it strange that a five time MP still needs someone else’s name to reach out to voters,” he said. 8.00 am: Polling begins across state, BJP faces tough fight Polling has got underway across Karnataka, where around 4.62 crore voters are expected to elect 28 representatives to the Lok Sabha. Here, unlike many other states this election, the Congress party is hoping to do well. An internal survey by the party in fact, revealed that Karnataka was one of the states in which the Congress party was hoping to gain enough seats to end up with a ‘realistic’ target of around 120 - 140 seats. [caption id=“attachment_1483773” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image[/caption] All the key poll trackers thus far have given Congress the advantage. The NDTV – Hansa poll tracker predicts that Congress will win 14 of the 28 constituencies in the state, while the CSDS-IBN Lokiniti poll tracker shows Congress winning 10- 18 seats, BJP 6- 10 seats and JD(S) 4- 8 seats. On the contrary the BJP is hoping to perform better than projected, by surfing on the popularity of their prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. In 2009, the party bagged 19 seats. Other key players in the state include JD(S) candidates HD Deve Gowda, H D Kumaraswamy and Bandeppa Kashempur and are likely to win two seats according to the NDTV- Hansa poll tracker. Here is a look at some of the key constituencies and key players: South Bangalore: One of the key and the most keenly watched battles in the Banglore South constituency will be between Nandan Nilekani, billionaire co-founder of Infosys, the brainchild behind the bio-metric identification system Aadhaar card and Ananth Kumar, a five-time MP from the BJP cluster. Nandan Nilekani and his wife recently declared wealth of Rs.7700 crores and by far is the richest candidate to be contesting the polls. Although dismissed as a ’no contest’ candidate by Ananth Kumar earlier on, Firstpost Karnataka correspondent Aravinda Gowda says that a superbly well organised campaign by Nilekani has caught his more experienced counterpart completely off guard. He says: Nilekani had set up his campaign team comprising political veterans, social media specialists, spin doctors, and urban experts, who identified the issues affecting voters of Bangalore South. When his candidature was announced, Nilekani mounted a full-fledged digital war against Ananth Kumar highlighting the issues. His presence on digital media was so strong that any person accessing the Internet from a Bangalore-based IP address, would be welcomed by Nandan’s messages and banner ads. His team also effectively used social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, to connect with voters of the constituency. On the contrary, Ananth Kumar was late in building his online profile; the realization that he even had to build one, happened only after Nandan’s Internet strategy became the talk of the town. Shimoga: Shimoga will see former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa attempt to make a comeback to politics. He is up against JD(S) candidate Githa Shivarajkumar, the daughter of former Chief Minister S Bangarappa. This constituency will also see a new entrant G. Sridhara Kallahalla representing AAP. Hassan: The other predicted power performer is JD(S) candidate HD Deve Gowda, and he will be contesting from Hassan. The former Prime minister who has declared that he will call it quits if the BJP comes to power, will be one of the key contestants to look out for from this constituency. He is pitted against three-time MLA, A. Manju who is representing Congress. CH Vijayashankar enters the contest representing BJP after initial reluctance over denial of his claim to contest from his home town, Mysore. Chikkaballapur Union Minister M Veerappa Moily will be representing Congress from Chikkaballapur and he will be facing HD Kumaraswamy from the JD(S). The petroleum minister who recently took over the environment ministry will have to tackle the likes of JD(S) candidate HD Kumaraswamy, the second member from the H D Deve Gowda’s family to be contesting Lok Sabha Election. The party usually finds support from the members of the Gowda or Vokkaliga community and Chikaballapur is known to have the highest number of Gowda voters. BJP have pitted another Gowda- and former Minister B.N. Bachhe Gowda in this constituency. Bidar N Dharam Singh will be contesting from Bidar after barely managing a Congress Party Ticket. He has been hospitalized on several occasions in the past because of his deteriorating health. Congress had earlier speculated that they would not field him for the coming elections, but considering his popularity among the masses, the party gave him a ticket. He has also admitted that this will be his last election.