Karnataka bypolls 2018: Voting for 3 LS, 2 assembly seats concludes

Bengaluru, Nov 3: Voting for bypolls held for three parliamentary constituencies Shimoga, Bellary and Mandya recorded 61.05 per cent, 63.85 per cent and 53.93 per cent respectively and 73.71 and 81.58 per cent voting recorded in two legislative assembly constituencies Ramanagaram and Jamkhandi respectively on Saturday. The voting has concluded.

There were total 31 candidates in the fray in all the five constituencies, though the contest is mainly between the Congress-JDS combine and the BJP.

Congress and JDS, who came together in a post-poll alliance after the assembly elections in May this year threw up a hung House, have decided to face the polls unitedly against the BJP, which they perceive as their common enemy.

Here the latest updates from Karnataka bypolls 2018:

• Voter turnout in Jamkhandi was 58.82% and in Ramnagara it was 54.76% till 3 pm.

• Voter turn out registered in Bellary, Shimoga and Mandya were 47%, 41.49% and 37.7%, respectively till 3 pm.
  

• Congress social media head Divya Spandna likely to skip voting. This would be third time she is skipping voting.

• BJP MLA Sriramulu casts his vote along with his wife Bhagyalakshmi at poll booth number 52.

• Poll code violation reported at booth number 125 in Jamakhandi. Congress and JDS workers detained for influencing voters outside the polling centre, reports News 9.

• Parliamentary constituencies Bellary 4.40%, Shimoga 8.61% and Mandya 4.18%. Legislative assembly constituencies Jamkhandi 9% and Ramnagar 8% till 9 am.
  

• Anand Nyamagouda, Congress candidate from legislative assembly constituency of Jamkhandi, casts his vote at polling booth number 125.
  

• "101% my son (BS Raghavendra) is going to win the Shimoga seat. We are also going to win Bellary and Jamkhandi. We will get absolute majority in all the constituencies," says Karnataka BJP chief Yeddyurrappa.

  Polling in the by-polls to three Lok Sabha seats - Ballari, Shivamogga and Mandya and Ramanagara - and Jamkhandi assembly segments will be held between7 am to 6 pm Saturday, with a total of 54,54,275 voters eligible to cast their franchise in about 6,450 polling stations.

  The Election Commission had announced by-elections in three Lok Sabha and two Assembly constituencies in Karnataka on November 3 and the result will be out on November 6.

  Electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPATs) will be used in all the polling stations in the by-elections.