Karnataka Lok Sabha bypoll: Mandya, Bangalore Rural to vote on Wed

Bangalore: Bypolls to Mandya and Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha seats will be held on Tuesday with 36.37 lakh voters expected to exercise their franchise at the end of a bitterly fought battle between the ruling Congress and JDS.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has played for high stakes in the polls that was marked by a no-holds barred attack by leaders of Congress and JDS, which has the backing of BJP for both the seats.

The bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of N Cheluvarayaswamy (Mandya) and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy (Bangalore Rural) who quit after being elected to the Assembly in May.

JDS of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda has fielded Kumaraswamy’s wife Anita from Bangalore Rural, and CS Puttaraju in Mandya. Leading Kannada actor Ramya is Congress candidate from Mandya and DK Suresh, brother of senior Congress leader and MLA DK Shivakumar from Bangalore Rural.

Karnataka chief electoral officer Anil Kumar Jha said about sixty teams of surveillance and flying squads would be deployed for the byelections.

Polling will begin at 8 am and end at 5 pm, he said.

Jha said about 36.37 lakh voters in both parliamentary constituencies were expected to vote in 4,360 polling booths.

The chief electoral officer said there would be a ban on exit poll on the date of poll. Any analysis in the preceding 48 hours is an offence under the Representation of People’s Act, he added.

The Gowda belt of Mandya is a stronghold of JDS, which won five of the eight Assembly seats in the district in the May elections.

In Bangalore Rural, where Kumaraswamy had won by 1.3 lakh votes in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress has secured the support of Samajwadi Party MLA, C P Yogeeshwara, who who reigned supreme in Channapa Assembly segment defeating Anita in May.

PTI