All set for counting of votes in Karnataka on Tuesday
Bengaluru, May 14: The counting of votes cast in 222 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka on May 12 will be taken up on Tuesday morning, an official said on Monday.
"All arrangements have been made for counting of votes in 222 seats from 8 a.m. onwards at 38 centres in 30 districts, including five in Bengaluru where polling was held in 26 of the 28 segments," Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar told reporters here.
A record 72.36 per cent of the 5.07 crore electorate cast their votes, with 27,908 electors in defence services exercising their franchise through postal ballots.
The Election Commission has deployed 16,662 personnel for counting of votes amid tight security.
"Postal ballots will be counted first before the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are opened," Kumar said.
In all, 2,622 candidates, including 217 women contested the 222 seats, including 36 reserved for Scheduled Castes and 15 for the Scheduled Tribes.
Election in Bengaluru's Raja Rajeshwari (RR) Nagar was postponed to May 28 due to seizure of voter ID cards and countermanded in the city's Jayanagar seat due to the death of BJP candidate and MLA B.N. Vijaya Kumar on May 4. Vote counting in RR Nagar will be taken up on May 31.
The ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fought in all 222 constituencies while the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) fielded candidates for 201 seats. Its ally Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) contested 21 seats.
There were 1,155 Independents and about 800 candidates from national, regional and fringe parties.
The highest voting percentage of 84.55 was recorded in Ramanagaram district, followed by 84.19 in Chikkaballapur, 84.03 in Bengaluru Rural, 82.53 in Mandya and 82.51 in Tumakuru.
The lowest voting percentage of 54.72 was in Bengaluru Urban, followed by Kalaurgi 62.68, Raichur 65.80 and Yadgir 65.84.
Among the prominent candidates are Chief Minister Siddaramaiah from Chamundeshwari district in Mysuru and Badami in Bagalkot and his son Yatindra from Varuna in Mysuru.
The others are the BJP's chief ministerial face B.S. Yeddyurappa from Shikaripura in Shivamogga district, JD-S state President H.D. Kumaraswamy from Ramanagara and Channapatna in Ramanagaram district and BJP's Lok Sabha member B.R. Sriramulu from Badami and Molakamuru (Reserved) in Chitradurga district.
Yeddyurappa, 75, is also the party's Lok Sabha member from Shivamogga and the party's state unit President, who became its first Chief Minister in south India when the BJP came to power for the first time on its own in the May 2008 elections.
BJP's former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar is also in the fray from Hubballi-Dharwad Central.
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UP Police use tear gas to disperse crowd throwing stones during Sambhal mosque survey
Sambhal (UP) (PTI): Police used tear gas and "minor force" in the face of stone pelting by locals here on Sunday as tension escalated during a second survey of the Mughal-era mosque, claimed to be originally the site of an ancient Hindu temple.
Tension has been seething in Sambhal over the past few days after the Jama Masjid was surveyed last Tuesday on the orders of a local court following a petition that claimed that a Harihar temple stood at the site.
According to the local administration, a second survey by an "Advocate Commissioner" as part of a court-ordered examination into the disputed site began around 7 am and a crowd began gathering at the spot.
"Some miscreants came out of the crowd gathered near the site and pelted stones at the police team. The police used minor force and tear gas to bring the situation under control," Superintendent of Police Krishna Kumar Vishnoi said.
He said those who engaged in stone pelting and those who incited them will be identified and action taken against them.
District Magistrate Rajendra Pesia said, "Some miscreants resorted to stone pelting but the situation is peaceful now and the survey is underway."
Videos of youths throwing stones at police, purportedly near the site of the survey in Sambhal have surfaced on the Internet.
Supreme Court lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain, who is also the petitioner in the case, had said the Court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) ordered the constitution of an "Advocate Commission" to survey the mosque.
The court has said that a report should be filed after conducting a videography and photography survey through the commission, he had said.
The Central and Uttar Pradesh governments, the mosque committee and the district magistrate of Sambhal have been made parties in the petition concerning the mosque, Jain said last Tuesday.
Vishnu Shankar Jain and his father Hari Shankar Jain have represented the Hindu side in many cases related to places of worship, including the Gyanvapi Mosque-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute.
Gopal Sharma, a local lawyer for the Hindu side, told PTI on Friday that in his petition filed in the court, he mentioned that "Baburnama" and the "Ain-e-Akbari" has confirmed that a Harihar temple was at the site where the Jama Masjid now stands.
He also claimed that the temple was demolished by Mughal Emperor Babur in 1529.
Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Zia Ur Rehman Barq had objected to the developments.
"The Jama Masjid of Sambhal is historical and very old. The Supreme Court had given the order in 1991 that whatever religious places are there in whatever condition since 1947, they will remain at their places," he had said.
The next date for hearing in this case is January 29.
VIDEO | Uttar Pradesh: Stones and slippers pelted in Sambhal when a survey team reached Shahi Jama Masjid to conduct a survey of the mosque.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 24, 2024
(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/n147TvrpG7)#SambhalJamaMasjid pic.twitter.com/K4QGGpzlMK
