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Fourteen constituencies of north Karnataka will go to polls on Tuesday, four days after electorates in 14 seats in the state’s southern part voted in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls in the country.
The seats going to polls on Tuesday are Chikkodi, Belagavi, Bagalkote, Vijayapura, Kalaburagi, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Ballari, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davangere and Shivamogga.
Out of these constituencies, Vijayapura and Kalaburagi are reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates while Ballari and Raichur are reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates.
Elections in the second phase of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka will be held between 7 am and 6 pm with a total of 2.43 crore voters casting their votes for a total of 237 candidates.
All the seats will see a straight fight between the BJP and the alliance candidates of the JD(S) and Congress.
While the BJP is contesting in all the 14 seats, the Congress and JD(S) are contesting in 11 and three seats respectively.
The Congress is contesting in Chikkodi, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Gulbarga (SC), Raichur (ST), Bidar, Koppal, Ballari (ST), Haveri, Dharwad and Davanagere, while the JD(S) will contest from Vijayapura (SC), Shivammoga and Uttara Kannada. Interestingly, the JD(S) candidate in Uttara Kannada is Pramod Madhwaraj, a former Congress minister who has not quit his primary membership in the party.
The ruling coalition has fielded women candidates: Veena Kasappanavar of Congress in Bagalkote and Sunita Devanand of JD(S) in Vijayapura (SC). The BJP, on the other hand, has no female candidates.
In the 2014 general elections, the BJP had won 11 seats and the Congress the remaining three, with none going to the JD(S).
Some of the key contestants are Congress heavyweight Mallikarjun Kharge is contesting from Kalaburagi, hoping for a third-time victory, and party's state unit working President Eshwar Khandre from Bidar.
In Shivamogga, sons of two former Chief Ministers are locked in a straight contest. The sitting Member of Parliament BY Raghavendra, son of former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa, is facing former Chief Minister S Bangarappa’s son Madhu Bangarappa, who is contesting on a JD(S) ticket.
Elaborate security arrangements are in place with more than 49,000 police personnel stationed across the state, in addition to Civil Defence, jail wardens and five companies of Central Armed Police Force.
Karnataka's Chief Electoral Officer has identified 5,605 polling stations as critical and has deployed additional cops to ensure free and fair voting.