Hunsur bypoll: 80.62% voter turnout recorded

Hunsur Assembly byelection witnessed approximately 80.62% voters turnout. The election was held on Thursday and counting of the votes will be held at D Devaraj Urs First Grade College, here, on December 9.

The bypoll for the segment was necessitated by the resignation of A H Vishwanath, who was elected on JD(S) ticket in 2018 election.

The polling stations across the constituency evoked good response since morning. The voting percentage was 19.12% at 11 am and 38.20% at 1 pm. The constituency witnessed 57.44% turnout at 3 pm and it was 74.47% by 5 pm. By the end, the turnout was 80.62%.

Compared to the previous Assembly election in the segment, the turnout is slightly less. Hunsur segment had registered a total turnout of 82.54% in the Assembly elections of 2018 and 77.24% in Lok Sabha elections 2019.

As many as 17 candidates, including BJP’s A H Vishwanath, JD(S)’ Devarahalli Somashekar and Congress’ H P Manjunath were in the fray. The officials had established a total of 274 polling stations for a total of 2,27,974 voters — 1,14,580 men, 1,13,388 women and six others.

Following the voting, demustering was held at D Devaraj Urs First Grade College, where the counting will be held on December 9. All the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) were shifted to the strongroom established in the college. The District Election Commission and the Police department have made all arrangements near the strongroom and adequate security is in place.

106-year-old cast vote

Sannamma, 106-year-old, of Neralakuppe village, in the taluk, exercised her franchise, with the help of Police personnel. The tribal community people in the taluk enthusiastically exercised their right.

Two cases

Except two cases, the polling was peaceful across the segment. Bilikere police registered an FIR against H D Kote MLA C Anil, Congress party district president B J Vijay Kumar and 20 others for disturbing the election process at Hosaramenahalli in the segment. The police have booked them under IPC Sections 353 (Criminal force to deter public servant from discharging of his duty), 143 (Unlawful assembly) and 147 (Rioting).

In another case, a verbal spat broke out between Congress workers and the police at Karigowda Beedi in Hunsur town.