Voting in Karnataka for the second phase of Lok Sabha Election 2019 has kicked off today. The state will witness polling exercise in 14 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats, while the remaining 14 seats will go to polls in the third phase on April 23. The southern state has witnessed 49.26 per cent voter turnout till 3:00 pm on Thursday. The highest number of voters were recorded from Dakshina Kannada and the least in Bangalore Central during the first two hours.
Prominent contestants in this phase include former prime minister HD Deve Gowda (Tumkur), his grandsons Prajwal Revanna and Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Hassan and Mandya respectively, as also Union minister Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North), and senior Congress leaders Veerappa Moily (Chikkaballapura) and K H Muniyappa (Kolar).
Other candidates in this phase include independent candidates Sumalatha Ambareesh (Mandya) and Prakash Raj (Bangalore North), and BJP's youngest candidate Tejasvi Surya (Bangalore South), who is pitted against veteran Congressman B K Hariprasad.
HD Deve Gowda and his wife came to cast their vote at a polling station in Hassan's Paduvalahippe today around 11 am.
A total of 36,196 control units, 52,112 ballot units and 37,705 VVPAT machines are being used for the polls in 14 constituencies, where a total of 2,11,405 polling personnel- including 1,54,262 poll officials, 38,597 police personnel, 7,727 transport personnel and 10,819 other personnel will be on duty.
The voting began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm in the evening. A total of 2.67 crore voters are expected to vote to elect their representative in parliament from among 241 candidates contesting in the second phase.
Key constituencies to be watched out in Karnataka is Mandya, that saw a bitter campaign, where Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil from JD(S) is pitted against independent candidate Sumalatha, widow of actor-turned politician M H Ambareesh.
Of the 14 constituencies going to the polls, BJP and Congress had won six each in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and JD(S)two.
While the BJP is contesting in 13 constituencies and supporting independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh in Mandya, Congress and JD(S) have fielded their candidates in 10 and four constituencies respectively. The remaining 14 constituencies, mostly in northern districts, will go to polls in the second phase on April 23.
(With PTI inputs)