80.48% voter turnout recorded in Shiggaon

The polling for the byelection to Shiggaon Legislative Assembly constituency concluded peacefully with a large number of voters turning up at the 241 polling stations to exercise their franchise on Wednesday.

The polling for the byelection to Shiggaon Legislative Assembly constituency concluded peacefully with a large number of voters turning up at the 241 polling stations to exercise their franchise on Wednesday.

The bypoll was necessitated because of the resignation of sitting MLA and former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. Mr. Bommai, who won from Shiggaon Assembly segment four times in a row, contested the parliamentary election and won. While the BJP fielded his son Bharath Bommai, the Congress fielded Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan, who had lost against Mr. Bommai in the 2023 election. There are eight candidates in the fray, including Ravi Krishna Reddy of KRS.

The polling began as scheduled at 7 a.m. with technical glitches in EVMs delaying the start at a few polling stations by 10 to 20 minutes. Despite the cold weather, people had reached the polling stations early to cast their votes. In the first two hours, 10.08% voters exercised their franchise and in the next two hours it picked up pace resulting in 26.01% voting. By 1 p.m. it had reached 43.50% and at 3 p.m. it was 59.62%. By 5 p.m., 75.07% had cast their votes.

By the time polling ended, approximately 80.48% of voters had cast their votes. 79.97% polling had been recorded in the 2023 Assembly election in which Mr. Bommai won by a margin of around 36,000 votes.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Basavaraj Bommai came along with his son Mr. Bharath to cast his vote. Mr. Pathan and former MLA Sayed Azeem Peer Khadri were prominent among those who voted.

District Election Officer and Deputy commissioner of Haveri Vijaymahanthesh Danammanavar said that polling concluded peacefully without any hassle.

In a tragic incident, 97-year-old Earavva Badappa Naik of Tanduru village in Savanur taluk died after returning home after voting. An incident of poll boycott was reported at Dandinpet in Savanur where five to six families out of the 42 families in the locality did not vote in protest against not being issued record of occupancy rights by the administration. They said they had been living in the locality for the past seven decades and their demand had not been met.