11 districts to go to polls in Phase-I tomorrow

Bangalore, May 9 (UNI) Karnataka is set for the conduct of first phase of elections for 89 Assembly segments in 11 districts in the Southern Region of the state.

The voting will begin at 0700 hrs and end at 1700 hrs.

Unprecedented security measures have been taken under the Election Commission's instructions.

Nearly 58,000 security persons, including paramilitary, state police, reserve police forces and home guards have been deployed in the first phase, DG and IGP R Sri Kumar said.

Out of a total 18,562 polling-booths coming under the 89 segments, 6,252 had been classified as hyper-sensitive and 3,500 as sensitive.

According to Bangalore City Police Commissioner, the city had 5,685 polling booths coming under 28 Assembly constituencies. Out of this, 2002 were hyper-sensitive and 2,000 sensitive.

Over 13,000 security personnel would take care of the security, he said today.

As many as 952 candidates are in the fray in the first phase for which campaign ended last evening.

The Assembly elections assume importance as Karnataka is the first state to go to elections under the newly demarcated segments taken up in accordance with the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission.

As many as 1,72,88,358 voters, including 84,14,624 women, would exercise their franchise in this phase.

The districts which are going to poll in the first phase elections are Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Ramanagaram, Mandya, Tumkur, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Hassan, Kodagu, Mysore and Chamarajanagar. JD(S) Chief Ministerial candidate H D Kumaraswamy (Ramangaram), Congress party's CM aspirant Sidharamaih (Varuna), Former Ministers R Ashok, Katta Subramanya Naidu, G T Deve Gowda (all BJP), Mahadeva Prasad, Roshan Baig (Congress) and Cheluvaraya Swamy (JD-S) are among those seeking elections in this phase.

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