More than 70 per cent voting: Sanjeev Kumar
State Assembly Election
Bengaluru, May 12: In the election held for 222 assembly constituencies in the state on Saturday, more than 70 per cent voting was registered, said State Chief Election Officer Sanjeev Kumar.
Speaking to reporters at Vidhana Soudha here on Saturday evening, Sanjeev Kumar said that barring some minor incidents, the polling was peaceful across the state. Interestingly, youth, women and senior citizens turned to the polling stations in more number. All departments have cooperated well with the Election Commission. He would thank all the nodal officers, para-military forces, police personnel, and election officers deputed for election related works. The election was peaceful because of the guidance of the Central Election Commission, he said.
There were reports that VVPATs were not working properly in some places. Total 212 ballot units, 340 control units and 698 VV PATs have failed to function and they were replaced immediately. More than 600 engineers of BEL have taken care of the EVMs, he said.
Because of the technical problem in the serial number 9 of EVM at polling station-2 at Lottegollahalli polling station in Hebbala constituency, it was decided to conduct re-election in that polling station on May 14 from 7 am to 6 pm. Those who have exercised their votes in that polling station should vote once again, he said.
Preparations are on for conducting elections in Jayanagar and RR Nagar constituencies where election was not held on Saturday. The counting of votes of all 222 constituencies would be conducted on May 15 and the result would also be announced on the same day, he said.
Related to election malpractices, total 40,000 FIR were registered in the state. A sum of Rs 182 crore worth cash, gold and silver ornaments, liquor and other materials were seized. Total 600 pink polling stations were set up for women and 26 were set up for physically challenged voters in the state, he said.
The allegation of Brijesh Kalappa that whichever the button is pressed in the EVM at a polling station at RMV Second Stage was going to BJP was far from truth. Such problem was cropped up only at Lottegollahalli polling station. Apart from this incident, no such incidents were reported from any parts of the state, he said.
Percentage of voting in state
Belagavi- 71%
Bagalkote- 68%
Vijayapura- 63%
Kalaburgi- 56%
Bidar- 59%
Raichur- 61%
Koppal- 70%
Gadag- 68%
Dharwad- 66%
Uttara Kannada- 71%
Haveri- 76%
Ballari – 66%
Chitradurga- 76%
Davangere- 70%
Shivamogga – 73%
Udupi- 75%
Chikmagaluru- 70%
Tumakuru-73%
Chikballapura- 79%
Kolar- 77%
Bengaluru Rural – 76%
Ramanagar- 80%
Mandya- 78%
Hassan- 77%
Dakshina Kannada-73%
Kodagu- 69%
Mysuru- 68%
Chamarajnagar- 78%
Yadagiri- 60%
Bengaluru Central- 51%
Bengaluru North- 49%
Bengaluru South- 49%
Bengaluru Urban- 51%
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
