55 to 60 per cent voting in Udupi-Chikmaglur LS bypoll

About 55 to 60 per cent voters on Sunday exercised their franchise in the Udupi-Chikmaglur Lok Sabha by-election where ruling BJP faces a litmus test, locked in a bitter contest with Congress and Janata Dal-Secular.

Voting was by and large peaceful, except for minor incidents of clashes reported in a few polling booths in Udupi district, official sources said.

However, there were no incidents of clashes in Chikmaglur and polling there was peaceful,sources said. Initial reports suggested that about 55 to 60 per cent  voters of a total 12.53 lakh electorate turned out to cast their vote in the bypoll till 5 pm.

Of the total of 1633 polling stations, 231 were categorized as hypersensitive and 788 sensitive. Extra police personnel were posted in 77 Naxal-hit areas.

The bypoll was necessitated after D V Sadananda Gowda vacated his parliamentary seat following his elevation as Karnataka Chief Minister. This is the second bypoll being held in the state after Gowda assumed office.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded former Karakala member of Legislative Assembly Sunil Kumar, while former minister K Jayaprakash Hegde is the Congress nominee and Bojegowda is the JDS candidate. A total of 14 candidates are in the fray.

Counting will be taken up on March 21.