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Karnataka Poll
60 pc turnout in first phase
Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service

Bangalore, May 10
Close to 60 per cent of the 1.72 crore strong electorate cast their votes in the first phase of the Assembly polls in Karnataka today. The state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) M.A. Vidyashankar said the polling in the first phase for the 89 out of the total 224 seats in the state was “free from any untoward incident”.

While Bangalore (Rural) district recorded over 72 per cent polling, the lowest polling of only 44 per cent was reported from Bangalore (urban) district and Bangalore Brihat Mahanagar Palika (BBMP) areas. Areas falling under the BBMP also come under the Bangalore (urban) district. Vidyashankar said the voting figures in the city areas of Bangalore had been traditionally low compared to other places of the state.

The CEO said over 30 persons had been arrested during the polling for trying to impersonate legitimate voters. He said one Kumaraswamy, a government official, was also arrested today for becoming a polling agent of the Congress. The CEO said the re-polling could be considered only after form 17(A) arrived from the booth officials. The form would indicate in case there was an abnormal voting trend in any of the constituencies, he said.

On complaints about people having electoral identity cards not finding their names in the voters’ lists, the CEO said a voter I-card was one of the 20 documents listed by the Election Commission (EC) as a proof of identification of a voter. He said ensuring the inclusion of an elector in the voters’ list was as much the responsibility of the voter as it was the responsibility of the EC. The verification of names on the list was carried out in February and March, he said.

Shindhe slapped with notice

The Election Commission today slapped a notice on union power minister Sushil Kumar Shindhe for violation of the poll code. Shindhe, who was in Bangalore this morning, made some power supply related promises to the press and that prompted the EC to gun for him. Vidyashankar said Shindhe promised free power to farmers, which was beamed through the electronic media. The union power minister also promised augmenting the power availability in Karnataka by 4000MW if Congress was voted to power, Vidyashankar said and added that the statements by the union minister was "totally unwarranted". Shindhe had been asked to reply to the notice within 48 hours, the CEO said and added that the reply by the minister would examined by the EC for further action.

Bomb blast at Hubli

On the explosion at Hubli today in an empty court room, Vidyashankar said he had sought a report from the district administration on the incident. Polling in Hubli is slated to take place in third phase of the elections on May 22.