Karnataka urban local body elections: 45% turnout in Belagavi till 2 pm; BJP, Congress leaders clash at booth in Ramdurg

In Karnataka, polling was held for 102 urban local bodies (ULBs) on Friday. The voting began at 7 am amid tight security, and was scheduled to end at 5 pm. Till 11 am, Dakshina Kannada district had 30.78 voter turnout, while Ullal city municipal council-saw 28.70 percent voter exercise their franchise. For Buntwal town municipal council, the polling stood at 33.25 percent, while the Puttur City Municipal Council had 30.89 turnout. Till 2 pm, Belagavi district had 45.23 voter turnout. In Belagavi, the police had to resort to lathi charge at a booth in Ramdurg after BJP MLA Mahadevappa Yadavad and former Congress MLA Ashok Pattan indulged in a verbal clash. Both politicians had gone to observe polling with supporters, and faced each other at ward number 12, 9, 3 and 2. When they tried to enter the prohibited area near polling station, the election officers had to take everyone out, after which supporters of both the politicians got into a verbal fight. [caption id=“attachment_5088861” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Voters at a polling station in Pandavapura town. image courtesy: Deena D’Silva/101Reporters[/caption] According to reports, the poll percentage was higher in Mysuru rural in comparison to the polls in Mysuru City. To maintain law and order during the polls, about 40,000 security personnel were deployed across the state. The voting is being held in 2,529 wards spread over 29 city municipalities, 53 town municipalities and 23 town panchayats and in 135 wards of the three city corporations. The Congress and the JD(S), which are in a coalition at the state-level, are contesting the ULB polls as rivals. In all, 8,340 candidates, including 2,306 from the Congress, 2,203 from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and 1,397 from the Janata Dal (Secular) are in the fray for the ULBs, while 814 are contesting in the city corporations, including 135 from Congress, 130 from BJP and 129 from JD(S). A total of 36 lakh voters are registered in the ULB wards and 13.33 lakh in the three towns of Mysuru, Shivamogga and Tumakuru. Counting of votes will be taken up on 3 September and most of the results are expected by night or early the next day. Though the civic election was earlier scheduled to be held in 105 ULBs, it has been postponed in three of them — Somwarpet, Virajpet and Kushalnagar — due to heavy rains and flash floods early in August in the Kodagu district, about 270 kilometres from Bengaluru. In the 2013 ULB elections held in 4,976 seats, the Congress had won 1,960 seats, while BJP and JD(S) had won 905 seats each. The Independents bagged the remaining 1,206 seats. With inputs from 101Reporters and IANS