Voting for byelection of Bidar North smooth

Peaceful voting took place here on Saturday for the byelection to the Bidar North Assembly seat and no untoward incident was reported. The byelection was necessitated due to demise of sitting MLA Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli on November 17 last year.

The district administration has set up a total of 214 polling booths, of which 152 have been identified as hyper-sensitive and 62 as sensitive. The polling - which began at 7 am - was dull in the early hours, but picked up later. As many as 10 candidates are in the fray.

The fight is between the contenders from the mainstream parties. The Congress has fielded Rahim Khan, BJP Prakash Khandre, JD(S) Ayaz Khan and BSP Madanna Vaijanath.

Micro-observers visited sensitive booths frequently to ensure order. The polling was video-recorded at these booths.