80% polling in K R Pet; Largely peaceful

The polling for the byelection in K R Pet taluk, Mandya district, was largely peaceful. The bypoll was conducted in K R Pet Assembly segment following the resignation of JD(S) MLA Narayana Gowda. The overall polling was 80% from 7 am to 6 pm.

As a precautionary measure, the Police Department had stepped up security across the taluk, following incidents of clash between JD(S) and BJP workers, over reported illegal distribution of money. However, no untoward incident was reported in the taluk, on Thursday.

The polling, which was lukewarm initially, picked up later. The candidates of the three major parties, Narayana Gowda of BJP, K B Chandrashekar of Congress and B L Devaraj of JD(S) cast their votes before 9 am. While BJP and Congress candidates cast their votes in K R Pet town, JD(S) candidate cast his vote at his native Bandihole village. Karnataka Rashtriya Samiti candidate Shankaregowda cast his vote at Keremegala Koppal village.

No violence

As there was a technical glitch in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at a booth in Bandihole, the voting was delayed by 40 minutes. Devaraju waited patiently to cast his vote. Except this, there were no major incident of technical problem in the EVMs. No incident of violence or friction between party workers was reported across the taluk.

There was confusion in polling booth 138. While the number of voters was 1,131, there were names of only 1,079 persons in the list. Though Block Congress president Ravindra Babu brought this to the notice of the officials, no action was taken, complained Chandrashekar’s daughter Amshu.

Candidates

BJP candidate Narayana Gowda, his wife Devaki and daughter Neha, cast their votes at the Government Independent PU College in the town. Speaking to reporters later, he expressed confidence of an hat-trick win from the segment.

Congress candidate Chandrashekar cast his vote, along with his wife Ramamani, at the same polling booth. He exuded confidence that the pro-people programmes of former chief minister Siddaramaiah will help him to score over his rivals.

JD(S) candidate Devaraju, with his wife Sarvamangala, cast his vote at Bandihole. K R Pet is a JD(S) bastion and that will be proved in the byelection, he said.

Heavy police security was deployed across the taluk, led by SP K Prashuram. He was criss-crossing the polling centres to ensure smooth polling.