Voting for the bye-elections on Saturday to three assembly constituencies — Chennapatna in Ramanagara district, Bangarpet in Kolar district and Jagalur in Davanagere district — had a good turnout.
Voting for the bye-elections on Saturday to three assembly constituencies — Chennapatna in Ramanagara district, Bangarpet in Kolar district and Jagalur in Davanagere district — had a good turnout. These elections have become a matter of prestige for three major political parties in the state.
Chief Electoral Office officials said that 73% of the estimated 4.93 lakh electorate voted in 694 polling stations during the bye-elections, which was trouble-free. “Jagalur constituency witnessed polling of about 73%, Bangarpet 69% and Chennapatna about 80%,” said officials. The poll prospects of 33 candidates remained sealed in electronic voting machines and the outcome will be known on May 13, the day of counting. The bye-elections were necessitated following the resignation of M C Ashwath [JD (S)] in Chennapatna, M Narayanaswamy (Congress) and SV Ramachandra (Congress) in Bangarpet and Jagalur constituencies respectively, resigning their Assembly membership to join the BJP.
While Ashwath quit the JD (S) and assembly membership in Chennapatna, Ramachandra and Narayanaswamy resigned their Jagalur and Bangarpet seats to defect to the saffron party. Interestingly, Chennapatna witnessed election for the third time since 2008. CP Yogeshwar, elected on a Congress ticket but who defected to the BJP in 2009, lost to JD (S) candidate Ashwath in the bye-poll. However, Ashwath also crossed over to the BJP, leading to yet another bye-poll. The BJP fielded Yogeshwar in Chennapatna after Ashwath refused to take the plunge into the electoral battle. Narayanaswamy and Ramachandra are seeking re-election on BJP tickets.
The Congress and JD (S) pulled out all stops to defeat the BJP candidates by appealing to the electorate “not to encourage defectors.” The ruling party sought votes on the twin planks of government stability and development. Chennapatna has highest number of aspirants with 15 contestants, followed by 10 in Bangarpet and eight in Jagalur.
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