Around 65 percent voting in Karnataka urban local bodies poll

Bangalore : Around 65 percent of over 8.5 million voters in Karnataka Thursday cast their ballots in the elections to 208 urban local bodies, an official said here.

The balloting was peaceful in most of the places, though there were instances of people complaining about their names missing from the voters list in some area, a spokesperson of the state election commission told reporters.

The results will be out March 11 and are expected to impact the morale of political parties as they have to get ready to face assembly polls due in May.

Voting took place for seven city corporations, 43 city municipal corporations, 65 town municipal councils and 93 town panchayats.

A total of 4,867 representatives are to be elected from among more than 21,000 candidates to run the local bodies. According to the state election commission, 85 have been elected unopposed and there were no nominations for 24 seats.

The Congress has fielded the highest number of candidates (4,492), followed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (3,954) and Janata Dal-Secular (3,651).

The Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) headed by former BJP chief minister B. S. Yeddyurappa, BSR (‘Badavara Shramikara Mattu Raithara’ or poor, workers and farmers’) Congress floated by former BJP minister B. Sriramulu, the Communist Party of India-Marxist and independents are also in the fray.