45 per cent polling till 2:30 pm in Karna assembly bypolls

Bengaluru: An estimated 45 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise till 2.30 pm on Sunday in the by-polls to two assembly constituencies in Karnataka.

Officials said Nanjanagud and Gundlupet each reported around 45 per cent voting.

The polls have been necessitated in Gundlupet and Nanjanagud following the death of Cooperation Minister Mahadeva Prasad and resignation of V Srinivas Prasad as a Congress MLA after he was dropped from the ministry, respectively.

Prasad is now the BJP candidate from Nanjangud while Congress has fielded Kalale Keshavamurthy, who had contested the 2013 Assembly polls on a JD(S) ticket.

In Gundlupet, Congress has fielded Mahadeva Prasad's wife Geeta Mahadeva Prasad while the BJP nominee is C S Niranjan Kumar.

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's JD(S) has decided not to field its candidates for the by-polls and remain neutral.

The stakes are particularly high for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as he aims to continue his grip over the party and the government ahead of next year's Assembly elections, even as he faces dissidence from the party's old guard.

With both the seats held by Congress and in his home turf, retaining them has become a prestige issue for Siddaramaiah, who had devoted the last eight days for the campaign crisscrossing the constituency.

A total of 12 candidates are in the fray in Nanjanagud constituency, which has 2,01,815 voters.

In Gundlupete, nine candidates are contesting and a total of 2,00,860 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise.

Along with police and home guard personnel, Karnataka State Reserve Police, District Armed Reserve and Central Armed Police Force units or platoons have also been deployed for the bypolls, officials said.