Voting underway in 102 ULB polls across Karnataka; bigwigs cast their vote

Agencies
August 31, 2018

Bengaluru, Aug 31: Moderate polling is underway for the election to 102 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across Karnataka, a poll official said on Friday. Polling started at 7 a.m. amid tight security, the official added.

About 40,000 security personnel have been deployed in cities and towns to maintain law and order across the state where voting will continue till 5 p.m. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are being used in the poll.

Voting is being held in 2,529 wards spread over 29 city municipalities, 53 town municipalities and 23 town panchayats and in 135 wards of the three city corporations.

In all, 8,340 candidates, including 2,306 from the Congress, 2,203 from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and 1,397 from the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) are in the fray for the ULBs, while 814 are contesting in the city corporations, including 135 from Congress, 130 from BJP and 129 from JD-S.

A total of 36 lakh voters are registered for exercising franchise in the ULB wards and 13.33 lakh in the three towns of Mysuru, Shivamogga and Tumakuru.

Till 9 a.m., 6.04 per cent voters in Mysuru have exercised their franchise.

In Mysuru city corporation there are 7,98,107 registered voters - women 396896, men 401113 and others 98. A total of 815 polling booths have been setup for 65 wards.

Senior Congress leader and former MLA Vasu, who cast his vote at Mahajana First Grade College in Jayalakshmipuram, while speaking to reporters supported former CM Siddaramaiah's claim of becoming CM once again.

Vasu said that Siddaramaiah's claim will not affect the JDS - Congress coalition or government.

Counting of votes will be taken up on September 3 and most of the results are expected by night or early the next day.

Though the civic election was earlier scheduled to be held in 105 ULBs, it has been postponed in three of them -- Somwarpet, Virajpet and Kushalnagar due to heavy rains and flash floods early in August in the Kodagu district, about 270km from here.

In the 2013 ULB elections held in 4,976 seats, the Congress had won 1,960 seats, while BJP and JD-S had won 905 seats each, the Independents bagged the remaining 1,206 seats.

The outcomes of these polls will not impact the stability of the government, but could change political equations since the Congress and JD(S), bowing to pressure from their cadres, decided to contest the polls independently. The party that wins the highest number of ULB seats is likely to gain momentum ahead of the 2019 polls.

Comments

Ibrahim
 - 
Friday, 31 Aug 2018

Destroy BJP completely from everywhere. Jai Congress Jai JDS

Farooq
 - 
Friday, 31 Aug 2018

Anti BJP forces are there so BJP cant win alone

Mohan
 - 
Friday, 31 Aug 2018

Hope Cong - JDS mark their victory and make combine rule as in state

Danish
 - 
Friday, 31 Aug 2018

BJP's sacking programme is underway

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News Network
April 16,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 16: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr Ashwath Narayan today said that if former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, being a law-abiding citizen, does not follow guidelines then action will be taken against him.

The Deputy CM made this comment when he was asked about Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil's marriage, which has been fixed on April 17 at a farmhouse near Bidadi in Ramnagar.

Narayan said: "Any violation of the guidelines will not be tolerated. We will ask the concerned authority to film the entire event and document it."

He said that so far Kumaraswamy has made public statements that guidelines will be followed.

"HD Kumaraswamy is a people's representative. He has been in public life for a long time. He should abide by the guidelines," Narayan said.

"Since he has been in a responsible position for a long time and he was the Chief Minister, guidelines must be followed in his son's marriage as per the rules amid COVID-19 scare.

After the marriage, there must not be any excuses. He cannot say that people came without an invitation," the Deputy Chief Minister added.

Kumaraswamy clarified that only his family members will attend the marriage and that there will be around 60 to 70 people.

"All guidelines will be followed as per the central government directives," he said.

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News Network
April 1,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 1: Police have arrested a person on charges of spreading malicious comments against the Karnataka government staff engaged in the prevention of the novel coronavirus in the district.

City Police Commissioner Harsha on Tuesday tweeted, “One Nizam has been arrested and sent to judicial custody on court orders for spreading malicious content on social media through a platform idunammadhwani.. regarding various government functionaries engaged in anti-COVID-19 work and spreading rumours.”

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News Network
July 9,2020

Bengaluru,  Jul 9: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said that he was opposed to a tie-up with Janata Dal-Secular in the last Lok Sabha elections but the party high command did not listen to him.

"I had suggested that we should fight alone (in Lok Sabha elections) because JD-S votes would not have come to us and our votes would not have gone to JD-S," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.

Congress leader said that he was the only one to make the suggestion and he did not get support.

"I was the only one to raise a voice that's why it was not heard by (party) high command and I did not get support. We might have won over seven seats in parliament election if we had fought alone," he said.

After forming government in Karnataka in 2018 with support of JD-S, Congress had fought the 2019 general election in a pre-poll alliance with the party. Congress could only one seat of the 21 it contested and JD-S also won one seat of the seven it contested.

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