6.06 per cent voter turn out till 9:30 am in Bengaluru

An estimated 6.06 per cent voter turn out was witnessed by the city in the first two hours, with the onset of polling in 15 assembly constituencies in the state on Thursday.

According to voter turnout figures available till 9:26 am, the highest turnout of 9.01 per cent was recorded in Hoskote, while the lowest was observed in Shivajinagar with 3.04 per cent.

Other constituencies going for by-polls till 9:26 am reported different figures for turnout, including Athani with 8.33%, in Kagwad 6.94%, Gokak reported 6.11%, in Yellapur 7.54%, Hirekerue- 5.59%, Ranebennur with 6.22%, Vijayanagara- 6.5%, Chikkaballapur with 6.91%, in K R Puram 4.04%, in Yeshwanthpura 4.19%, Mahalakshmi layout- 8.21%, K R Pete- 6.2%, and Hunsur with 6.18%.

Some BJP candidates- Byrathi Basavaraj from K R Puram, Gopalaiah of Mahalakshmi Layout and S.T. Somashekar of Yeshwanthpura were among some of the early voters in their polling booths. Sharath Bachegowad, a BJP rebel and independent candidate from Hoskote, also cast his vote early, along with his family members.

Short queues of people were observed at various polling booths in different parts of the state, which hinted that the turnout number was not huge.

The by-elections are being held to fill the vacancies caused by the disqualification of 17 rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs, which led to the collapse of H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition government in July and paved way for the BJP rule.

BJP requires at least six of the 15 seats to remain in the majority in the 225-member assembly (including the vote of the Speaker), but which would still have two vacant seats- Maski and RR Nagar.

A total of 37,77,970 electors are eligible for voting at 4,185 polling stations in 15 constituencies of the state. There are also 4,711 service voters. Among the eligible voters, 19,25,529 are men, 18,52,027 women, with 414 other voters. Whereas, youth constitute of 79,714 voters.

Around 165 candidates are in the fray for by-polls from all the 15 constituencies, of which 156 are men and 9 are women. Among the major political parties in the state, BJP and Congress have 15 candidates each in the fray, while JD(S) candidates are 12. The remaining are from smaller parties or are independents.

Out of 15 assembly segments going to by-polls, 12 were held by Congress and three by JD(S). BJP has fielded 13 of the 16 disqualified legislators who had joined the party, as its candidates. The candidates are from their respective constituencies from where they had won the 2018 assembly elections on Congress and JD(S) tickets.