Polls for six Council seats held at various parts of Karnataka

Elections for six Legislative Council graduate teachers' seats were held on Friday. The polling began at 7 am will end at 5 pm. Incumbents --JD(S)' Marithibbe Gowda, Ramesh Babu and BJP's Captain Ganesh Karnik are in the fray.

In view of the heavy rains in various parts of the state, the election commission has asked voters to come to booths and cast their votes as early as possible.

In the south-east constituency, in Tumakuru 22.76% polling was reported by 11 am. Maximum polling was in Kunigal (40%). By 1 pm it was 52.2% turnout for the constituency as a whole.

In Kolar, the polling percentage was 27.48 by 11 am. Though voting was slow during the first two hours in most booths, after 9 am, it picked up. There are 2018 male voters and 1385 female voters (total 3403).

BJP candidate K B Srinivas Reddy cast his vote in Hospet (north-east constituency) at the taluk office. The turnout for the whole constituency by 1 pm was 36.79%

MLA C T Ravi cast his vote in Chikkamagalur (south-west constituency), as did JD(S) candidate S L Bhoje Gowda. The turnout for the whole constituency by 1 pm was 40.15%.

North-east constituency polls were held in Ballari at Bala Bharati school booth, taluk office and Sarala Devi college. At 9 am the polling percentage was a mere 5.16%. There are 20737 voters in the constituency.

In the south teachers' constituency in Mysuru, the polling was as low as 5.31% at 9 am. The constituency has 19 booths (10 in Mysuru city) and includes Mandya, Chamarajanagar and Hassan districts. A total of 20,678 voters are registered here. The turnout was 46.74% as a whole.