Bengaluru, Apr 17 : After grueling campaign ended for 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in first phase (second phase in the country) yesterday evening, all arrangements have been made to hold a free and fair elections in Karnataka to be held on April 18.
The Lok Sabha seats, which goes for elections on Thursday, are Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru Central, Bengaluru North, Bengaluru South, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru, Mandya, Hassan, Mysuru, Chamarajanagara, Udupi-Chikkamagaluru, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara kannada.
The polling will be held between 7 AM and end at 6 PM.
Taking into consideration the high voltage campaigning, the Election Commission, has declared Bengaluru Rural, Mandya, Hassan and Tumakuru as sensitive constituencies, and stationed additional security forces to maintain peace and tranquility during the polling.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party has put up 13 candidates, it has extended support to an independent candidate for the Mandya seat in this phase. The Congress party has fielded ten of its candidates, and its pre-poll alliance partner JD(S) is contesting in four Lok Sabha seats.
Prominent among the total number of 241 candidates who are in the fray include former Prime minister H D Deve Gowda (Tumakuru), his two grandsons Nikhil K (Mandya), Prajval Revanna (Hassan), Union ministers D V Sadananda Gowda (Bengaluru North), Ananthkumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada), former Union ministers K H Muniyappa (Kolar), V Srinivasprasad (Chamarajanagara), State BJP General secretary Shobha Karandlaje (Udupi-Chikkamagaluru) and others.
Among the total number of 30,197 polling stations, as many 6318 polling booths has been declared as sensitive. Additional police security had been deployed to prevent any untoward incidents in these segments during the polling. More than 45,000 police personnel including senior officials, will keep a strict vigil during the elections.
While highest number of 31 candidates are in the fray in the Bengaluru North, lowest number of 6 candidates are left in the fray in the Hassan.
Among the 14 Lok Sabha seats, which goes to poll tomorrow, the Bharatiya Janata Party had won 7 seats, followed by Congress in five and the remaining two seats were bagged by the JD(S), in the 2014 General elections.
