StatesKarnataka
Karnataka votes for four Legislative Council seats, scuffle outside Bengaluru booth
Graduates and teachers are choosing members for two graduates' and two teachers' constituencies, with 43 candidates in the fray. Votes will be counted on 27 October.
Key points
- Voting is under way for four Council seats, two graduates' and two teachers' constituencies.
- Congress and BJP workers clashed near a polling station at Ambedkar College, Nagarabhavi.
- Counting for all four seats is on 27 October.
Voters in Karnataka’s graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies went to the polls on Friday to fill four seats in the state Legislative Council, the first election for the Congress under its state president, B K Hariprasad, himself a member of the Council.
Polling began at 8 am and closes at 4 pm. Forty-three candidates are contesting, and the votes will be counted on 27 October.
The main contests pit the ruling Congress against the BJP and the JD(S). In the South-East Graduates’ constituency, Congress candidate Shashi Hulikunte Mutt faces the BJP’s K M Suresh. In the West Graduates’ seat, Mohan Limbikai of the Congress is up against S V Sankanur of the BJP. The North-East Teachers’ seat is a fight between Sharanappa Mattur of the Congress and the BJP’s Shashil G Namoshi, and in the Bengaluru Teachers’ constituency Puttanna of the Congress takes on the JD(S) candidate A P Ranganath.
Voting was brisk in the Bengaluru Teachers’ seat, where Bengaluru Rural district alone has 2,863 registered teacher voters, 1,411 men and 1,452 women, across six polling stations. Raichur has 16 polling stations for the North-East Teachers’ seat.
The day was not entirely calm. Congress and BJP workers clashed near a polling station at Ambedkar College in Nagarabhavi, in western Bengaluru, and police stepped in and put up barricades to keep the two sides apart.
The Council has 75 members, and five seats are now vacant. Turnout figures are expected after polling closes.