First phase polling begins in Karnataka

Bangalore, May 10 (UNI) First phase polling for 89 Assembly constituencies in 11 districts of Karnataka began amid tight security on a peaceful note at 0700 hrs today.

As many as 1,72,88,358 voters, will decide the fate of 952 candidates who are in the fray.

The political fortunes of former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy (Ramangaram), former Deputy Chief Minister Sidharamaih (Varuna) and former Ministers R Ashok, Katta Subramanya Naidu, G T Deve Gowda (all BJP), Mahadeva Prasad, Roshan Baig (Congress) and Cheluvaraya Swamy (JD-S) would be known by evening.

Elaborate security arrangements had been made by deploying more than 53,000 personnel, including Para Military forces, the CRPF and KSRP, to ensure free and fair elections. Out of the total 18,562 polling booths 6,252 had been classified as hyper-sensitive and 3,500 as sensitive.

In the state capital 5,685 polling booths coming under 28 Assembly Constituencies, 2,002 were identified as hyper-sensitive and 2,000 as sensitive. Over 13,000 force security personnel were deployed.

The districts where the polling was held were Bangalore urban, Bangalore rural, Ramanagaram, Mandya, Tumkur, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Hassan, Kodagu, Mysore and Chamarajanagar.

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