71 pc voting in Koppal bypoll

The byelection was necessitated following Karadi Sanganna, who won on the JD(S) ticket in the last election, switching over to the ruling BJP.

Sanganna had won with a margin of 10,345 votes against his nearest Congress rival Hitnal. This time too they have locked horns but Karadi is now the BJP candidate.

The counting of votes will be held on September 29. After the BJP came to power, winning byelections had become a sort of routine. But this time it has faced the election not under the leadership of B S Yeddyurappa but D V Sadananda Gowda as the chief minister.

However, Yeddyurappa campaigned vigorously in Koppal despite initial resistance from the seniors in the party.

Peaceful

Voting was peaceful barring a few arrests and verbal duel between the Congress and the JD(S) workers.

BJP candidate, Karadi Sanganna cast his vote at a booth here in Vijayanagar Colony.

Congress candidate K Basavaraj Hitnal voted at Hitnal, his native village and JD(S) candidate Pradeep Gowda Malipatil exercised his franchise in his village Kavaluru.

In Hitnal, police arrested Bhima Reddy, Khasim Ali and Subhashchandra, all said to be Congress workers for allegedly distributing money to voters and seized Rs 11,000 from the arrested.

Cops intervene

A verbal duel ensued between the Congress and the JD(S) workers at Kavalur. However, the situation was brought under control with the police intervention.

Voting was delayed for about 45 minutes at a booth following a technical snag with the electronic voting machine in Bisaranahalli.

Sub-inspector of police attached to Gulbarga station Basavaraj Hagaragi and two constables on poll duty were injured as the jeep they were travelling in turned turtle near Minahalli.