Two days after the ministerial portfolios of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka were announced, polling was held in Bengaluru’s Jayanagar assembly constituency across 216 booths on Monday without reports of any untoward incidents.
At the close of polling at 6 pm, the Election Commission pegged the voting percentage to be 55% compared to 53% in the recently conducted RR Nagar polls.
Steady polling was observed throughout the day in the seat with 10% of the constituents casting their vote by 9 am. Subsequently, at 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm, the voter turnout percentages stood at 22.2%, 34.05% and 43% respectively. Results for the seat will be declared on June 13.
Polling in Jayanagar constituency was deferred by the Election Commission after the sitting BJP MLA BN Vijaya Kumar, who was seeking re-election, passed away after elections were notified.
Unlike the RR Nagar election, which was also held after the formation of the coalition government, the JD(S) and Congress had agreed to field a single candidate in Jayanagar.
The Congress-JD(S) combine is backing Congress’ Sowmya Reddy, first-time contestant and daughter of party heavyweight Ramalinga Reddy. JD(S) had previously fielded Kalegowda, but he withdrew on the insistence of party higher-ups.
The BJP has gone with BN Prahlad (also making his electoral debut), brother of Vijaya Kumar, in what looks like a straight contest between the BJP and the Congress.
Other than the BJP and the Congress, independent candidate Ravikrishna Reddy, a social worker, is slated to be a dark horse to win the constituency. The seat has been retained by the BJP since 2008.
In RR Nagar, both the parties failed to reach an agreement over the choice of candidate but Congress’ incumbent MLA Munirathna Naidu emerged victorious with a significant margin even though he was embroiled in the voter ID card seizure case and other controversies.
Elections in that seat were deferred after close to 10,000 legitimate voter ID cards were recovered from a flat and Munirathna was named as an accused in the case.
With this, for the 224-seat Karnataka Assembly, by-polls have to be held in Ramanagara which has been vacated by CM HD Kumaraswamy. The CM had also won from Channapatna and had decided to vacate the seat at the JD(S) stronghold.