Mangaluru: Voting in the Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency began on a positive note on Friday. There are a total of 1,818,127 voters in the Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency, of which 887,122 are male voters and 930,928 are female voters. 77 belong to other genders.
By 9 am, the Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency recorded 14.33% voting, and Udupi-Chikkamagaluru, the adjacent constituency, has reported 12.82% voting.
Voting was delayed due to technical glitches at a polling booth in Bantwal Taluk. Voters at booth number 240 in Padmana Karopadi, in Bantwal Taluk, waited for an hour to cast their votes. It began around 8 am instead of 7 am due to a technical fault in the voting machine.
Though voters are not allowed to carry mobile phones inside the polling booth, a youth captured photographs of his voting and shared them on WhatsApp groups. Sources said Ranjeeth Bangera was the person who shared the photo after clicking it.
In another incident, a youth allegedly affiliated with the BJP created a scene at a polling station when the Congress candidate from the Dakshina Kannada constituency came for voting. He allegedly pushed and shoved police on duty over some issue.
Congress candidate for Udupi-Chikkamagaluru constituency, Jayaprakash Hegde, exercised his franchise with his wife Girija at a polling booth established at a government primary school in Korgi.
The administration has established a total of 1,876 polling booths across the Lok Sabha constituency, out of which 171 are categorized as very sensitive due to previous election-related irregularities or violence, and 1,705 are considered normal polling booths.
In the Mangaluru City Police Commissionerate limits, a total of 1,500 officers have been deployed for the Bandobast. Among them, 46 are working as PSI sector mobile officers, 14 as Inspectors serving as vision sector officers, and four Assistant Commissioners of Police as nodal officers. Of the 1,500 police personnel, 1,003 are from the civil police, 350 from the Home Guards department, and 17 are Forest Guards. Central security forces guard 36 sensitive polling booths, with an additional 16 ASIs on duty.
Additionally, two platoons of Central Armed Police Force and one platoon of KSRP have been deployed. In the district limits, a total of 1,600 police staff have been deployed for election-related security, along with three platoons of Central Armed Police Force and nine platoons of KSRP. A total of 11,255 staff are working for polling-related duties.
