Vijayapura: The fate of the candidates contesting in by-election of Sindagi constituency got sealed on Saturday October 30 as the voting was held in a peaceful manner.
The voting started at 7.00 am on a brisk note in some villages while it was dull in other booths.
At Chandakavathe village, limited number of voters were seen but a few kilometres away in Ganihar village, long queues were witnessed.
Though the fight is largely believed to be between the ruling BJP and the Congress, the voters remained tight-lipped on the prospects of a particular party.
Some minor incidents of heated arguments between the supporters of the Congress and the BJP was witnessed at Chandakavate village. Here the BJP workers accused the Congress workers of distributing chits having voter names along small slip of picture of Congress candidate Ashok Managuli. The police was seen disbursing the mob.
The enthusiasm was high among voters of all age groups at the polling booths.
At a few villages many residents were seen discussing the monitory aspects.
It may be noted that by-polls became necessary after the demise of JD (S) MLA, M. C. Managuli who died in January this year in a private hospital in Bengaluru due to some age-related issues. After which, the political activities intensified in the constituency to chose the candidate from the respective parties for the by-polls.
The ruling BJP offered ticket to Former MLA Ramesh Bhusnur as the party did not have a better choice, and the Congress sprung a surprise by fielding Ashok Managuli, son of M. C. Managuli.
The JD (S) which was so far hoping that Ashok will stay in the party and it can chose him as the candidate, had a rude shock waiting. Having lost the chance of fielding the son, the party decided to offer ticket to novice, Naziya Angadi, daughter in law of Late, I. B. Angadi, a staunch follower of Janata Party.
All three parties had intensely campaigned for their respective candidates for around a fortnight. The ruling BJP had deployed half of its cabinet for the campaign while the Congress had used most of their top leaders. The JD (S) also brought in all their influential leaders to campaign. Former Prime Minister, H. D. Deve Gowda had stayed for about a week in the constituency for the polls.
The District Administration had made an elaborate arrangements for the polling. A total of 1257 EVM were used for 297 polling booths set up in the constituency. A total of 2,34,585 voters had the chance to exercise their franchise.
Around 1300 polling staff had been deployed for the polling duty with 10 per cent officials being reserved for emergencies. The administration had claimed that before deployment, it was made sure that all the officials have taken both the doses of Covid vaccine.
Till 1.00 pm, over 38 per cent polling had taken place.
