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66.21% polling in 14 LS seats of Karnataka: DK highest; Bengaluru Central lowest

News Network
April 18, 2019

Bengaluru, Apr 18: The fierce, high-decibel election to the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies of Karnataka witnessed an estimated voter turnout of 66.21% in the first phase on Thursday. Polling was largely peaceful except for stray incidents of violence and large-scale complaints of missing names in the electoral rolls.

Bengaluru’s voter apathy continued with just about 48% of the city’s voters showing up at polling stations in the Bangalore North, Bangalore Central and Bangalore South constituencies. The average voter turnout in Bengaluru in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls was 55.95%. A total of 2.67 crore citizens were eligible to vote. In 2014, these 14 Lok Sabha constituencies recorded 68.6% voter turnout.

Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said the voter turnout could touch 69% once the final reports are obtained from the returning officers. The Election Commission will release the final voting figures on Friday.

The commission had, on its official mobile app, shown a “tentative” voter turnout of 69%, with the highest in the Mandya segment (80%) where Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil was locked in an intense fight with independent candidate Sumalatha, the wife of late actor-turned-politician M H Ambareesh.

However, according to figures released by the CEO, the highest voter turnout as of 6 pm Thursday was 77.22% recorded in the Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha segment, followed by Tumkur (77.03%) where former prime minister H D Deve Gowda is contesting. The lowest turnout was in Bangalore Central at 47.31%.

Widespread complaints from voters about their names “missing” from the electoral rolls were reported from almost all constituencies. Aggrieved citizens expressed their ire on social media.

Disruption

Polling was disrupted for some time in some places due to technical glitches. Two incidents of violence were reported from the Mandya LS constituency. The police had to resort to mild lathicharge when two groups clashed in the village of Doddarasinakere, Ambareesh’s native place, in the presence of Nikhil. In another incident in Malavalli, some JD(S) workers reportedly thrashed a polling agent accusing him of urging citizens to vote for Sumalatha.

In Honnur of Chitradurga, a skirmish between Congress and BJP workers left one person injured.

A total of 241 candidates were in the fray across the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies spread across the Old Mysore region and some coastal districts. This election is touted as a litmus test for the Congress-JD(S) alliance against the BJP. The outcome of the polls could have a bearing on the longevity of the Kumaraswamy-led coalition government.

Prominent candidates who went to polls on Thursday included former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda (Tumkur), his grandsons Nikhil (Mandya) and Prajwal Revanna (Hassan). Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North), senior Congress leaders M Veerappa Moily (Chikkaballapur) and K H Muniyappa (Kolar) were also in the fray. BJP’s L S Tejasvi Surya faced senior Congressman B K Hariprasad in Bangalore South.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 19,2020

Bengaluru, May 19: In the wake of assurance by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to look into their demands, hotels and restaurants in Karnataka today decided to continue takeaway services for three more days.

Hotels were also exempted from the total lockdown on Sundays in Karnataka - under the state guidelines issued for Lockdown 4.0.

The Karnataka Pradesh Hotel and Restaurants' Association (KPHRA) had earlier threatened to stop takeaway services over refusal to allow dine-in facility in the fourth phase of the lockdown. 

B Chandrashekar Hebbar, president of KPHRA said that the CM urged hoteliers to wait for three days, assuring that a decision will be taken. 

"We appraised the government over the mounting losses by keeping just take-away services open. Noting that social distancing and other guidelines will be followed, we urged him to allow dine-in facility," he said.

The Association will wait three more days before discontinuing parcel services, Hebbar said. 

The government also provided relaxation to hotels from the total lockdown announced in Karnataka on Sundays, he said. 

A package for hotel employees such as cooks and waiters, along the lines of those announced for farmers, cab drivers and weavers, was also sought in a petition submitted to the chief minister.

In fact the state government had expressed its willingness to open hotels under the Lockdown 4.0, subject to restrictions. However, the central guidelines do not allow dine-in services.

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News Network
May 22,2020
Bengaluru, May 22: Evacuation planes from Male in Maldives and Doha in Qatar landed in Bengaluru with returnees from Karnataka after they were stranded for two months due to suspension of international flights since March 23 and the extended lockdown, an official said on Friday.
 
"An Air-India flight (#0266) with 152 passengers from Male and its subsidiary Express flight (IX-0822) with 177 returnees and 5 infants from Doha landed here safely at 6.50 pm. and 9.05 pm respectively," an airline official told media persons in Bengaluru.
 
Both the flights are first from their respective countries to Bengaluru, bringing in returnees to the southern state in the second phase of the Vande Bharat mission, being carried out to evacuate Indians stranded the world over.
 
"As per the standard operating procedure and guidelines of the state health department, all the passengers were screened with thermal device and tested to ensure they were asymptomatic before leaving the airport," a nodal officer said.
 
The returnees were given a spare mask to wear all the time and a sanitiser to wash their hands.
 
"The luggage of all passengers was screened and disinfected before handing over to them after they completed formalities such as filling the self-declaration form and downloading of the Quarantine App for contact tracing later,” said the official.
 
The passengers were ferried from the airport in state-run buses in batches for 14-day institutional quarantine in hotels and resorts across the city.
 
The flights were the 6th and 7th flights to Karnataka, of the national carrier and its Express arm, which are operating the service to repatriate thousands of Indians, including distressed workers, migrants, students, senior citizens and tourists, stranded overseas.
 
Five flights have flown about 650 returnees till date from May 18-21 under the mission's second phase to Bengaluru and Mangaluru on the west coast. The passengers have been brought from Dubai in the UAE, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Muscat in Oman, Dammam in Saudi Arabia and San Francisco in the US.
 
The remaining flights to Karnataka will land in Bengaluru and Mangaluru over the next 12 days till June 3 from 9-10 more destinations the world over.
 
In the first phase of the mission from May 7-17, the airline and its arm flew 6 flights to the state from May 11-15, bringing in 800 passengers, including 623 to Bengaluru and 177 to Mangaluru from London, Singapore, San Francisco and Dubai.

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News Network
January 20,2020

Varanasi, Jan 20: An FIR has been lodged against unidentified persons for a controversial hoarding near the Varanasi railway station. It is worth mentioning here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself is the MP of Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.

The hoarding near the Englishiya Line crossing read, "Hindu dharma mein ghar vapasi karo... CAA, NRC se chhutkara pao (Get rid of CAA, NRC by converting to Hinduism)".

Inspector Ashutosh Ojha said that the FIR under section 295 A and 505 of IPC has been lodged.

"Investigation has been launched in the case and those involved in putting up the hoarding would be identified soon," he added.

According to sources, a lesser known outfit, Hindu Samaj Party, had placed the hoarding on the busy road.

The outfit's state Vice President Roshan Pandey had made a video viral on social media with his message in which he claimed to have put up the hoarding in response to the protest being staged at Shaheen Bagh, New Delhi.

The hoarding, which also has photographs of some Muslim women wearing saffron pagdi, was removed by the police late Saturday evening.

It came up at a time when Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister Smriti Irani and other leaders were in Varanasi to address a rally in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act at the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University.

Pandey, along with his supporters, had also tried to stage a sit-in at Lanka to give a call for marching to Shaheen Bagh in Delhi but was prevented by the police.

They were taken in custody and were later released following initial interrogation, said inspector Lanka, Bharat Bhushan.

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