Karnataka Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Karnataka on Tuesday recorded a voter turnout of 70 per cent where polling was held in the remaining 14 Lok Sabha constituencies out of a total 28 as the Congress and BJP locked horns again on the electoral battleground in less than a fortnight. According to poll officials, an estimated 69.50 per cent of voters cast their ballots. "This is tentative. It will vary slightly based on the detailed reports of the PRO (Presiding Officer)," an official said. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the same 14 segments in the first phase had recorded a turnout of 68.43 per cent.
The state has a total of 28 Lok Sabha constituencies. The first phase of polling in the other 14 seats in most of the southern and coastal districts was held on April 26. With today's polling, election in Karnataka has been completed.
The constituencies which went to polls in the first phase, including those in state capital Bengaluru, witnessed a turnout of 69.56 per cent.
Out of the 14 segments that went to polls today, the highest turnout of 76.23 per cent was recorded in Davangere, followed by Shimoga 76.05 per cent, and least 61.34 per cent in Raichur.
A total of 227 candidates -- 206 men and 21 women -- were in the fray for the second phase covering northern districts, where more than 2.59 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 28,269 polling stations.
The segments in northern districts where elections were held are: Chikkodi, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davangere and Shimoga.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP had swept all these 14 seats, defeating Congress and JD(S), which were in alliance and ruling the state back then.
Having scored a thumping victory in the Assembly elections, the Congress appeared determined to put up a strong show in the Lok Sabha polls, while Karnataka is the most important state for the BJP in south India as it's only here that it had held power in the past.
Former Chief Ministers Basavaraj Bommai (Haveri) and Jagadish Shettar (Balgaum), Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and Bhagwanth Khuba (Bidar) -- all from BJP; Congress' Geetha Shivrajkumar (Shimoga) -- wife of actor Shivrajkumar and daughter of former CM S Bangarappa, and AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani (Gulbarga), were among the prominent names in the fray.
Also in the contest were MP and veteran BJP leader B S Yediyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra, party's suspended leader and former Deputy CM K S Eshwarappa -- both from Shimoga, former Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri and ex- Minister B Sreeramulu of BJP from Uttara Kannada and Bellary respectively and retired IAS officer G Kumar Naik of Congress from Raichur, among others.
Stakes are high for several Ministers in this phase with their children in fray.
Sons of Ministers Laxmi Hebbalkar and Eshwar Khandre - Mrinal Ravindra Hebbalkar and Sagar Khandre - contested from Belgaum and Bidar respectively, while daughters of Ministers Satish Jarkiholi and Shivanand Patil - Priyanka Jarkiholi and Samyukta Patil- are in contention in Chikkodi and Bagalkot respectively.
Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of Minister SS Mallikarjun and daughter-in-law of veteran Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa, is in the fray from Davangere.
With inputs from PTI
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