TIL Desk/National/Bengaluru/ About 6 per cent of the electorate cast their votes Saturday in the first two hours of polling for the by-elections to three Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies in Karnataka. While the Lok Sabha constituencies of Shivamogga, Ballari and Mandya recorded 7.16 per cent, 4.4 per cent and 4.18 per cent voting respectively till 9 am, Ramanagara and Jamkhandi assembly constituencies have recorded 7.34 and 9 per cent polling.
Voting began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm. A total of 54,54,275 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in about 6,450 polling stations. There are a total 31 candidates in the fray in all the five constituencies, though the contest is mainly between the Congress-JD(S) combine and the BJP. Counting of votes will be on November 6.
The Congress and the JD(S), which have come together in a post-poll alliance after the assembly elections in May this year threw up a hung House, are facing the polls unitedly against the BJP, which they perceive as their common enemy. While the Congress has fielded its candidates in Jamkhandi and Ballari, the JD(S) is contesting in Shivamogga, Ramanagara and Mandya under an electoral understanding. A total of 1,502 polling stations have been declared as sensitive, election officials said.
