Mysuru 75.07 percent, Mandya 84.36 percent, Hassan 81.70 percent, Chamarajanagar 81.62 percent, Kodagu 74.74 percent

Bengaluru/Mysuru: Karnataka saw a historic voter turnout of 72.81 percent in the Assembly elections held yesterday, the highest in seven decades.

The ruling BJP, Congress, and JD(S) are in a tight contest, with the JD(S) hoping to be the king-maker in the event of a hung Assembly.

The voter turnout broke the previous record of 72.36 percent in 2018, the best since the first-ever State polls in 1952.

However, Bengaluru Urban saw a low turnout of 54.51 percent, even lower than the 56 percent polled five years ago, according to data from the Election Commission.

Melukote district registered the highest turnout at 90 percent, and Varuna, the seat of former Congress Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, saw over 84 percent polling. Voting was largely peaceful, with only sporadic incidents of clashes between party workers.

Mysuru recorded 75.07 percent, Mandya recorded 84.36 percent, Hassan 81.70 percent, Chamarajanagar 81.62 percent, and Kodagu recorded 74.74 percent.

Voting was held for 224 Assembly Constituencies with 2,615 candidates in the fray. The majority mark to form the Government is 113 seats, according to the Election Commission of India.

As many as 5.3 crore voters were eligible to cast their vote across 58,545 polling stations in 37,777 locations, with 11,71,558 being young voters and 12,15,920 senior citizens (aged 80 and above).

There were some skirmishes at polling stations, but officials said they were swiftly controlled.

In Vijayapura district, a mob manhandled an official and damaged a vehicle carrying reserved EVMs, assuming the machines were being transported to rig the polls. Police arrested 23 people for the attack.

However, polling was largely peaceful in all 224 Constituencies, and no re-poll is indicated in any of the polling stations, according to the Election Commission.

Despite a campaign blitz by several national leaders of all parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and special drives by the Election Commission to enthuse urban voters, Bengaluru’s turnout in the 28 Constituencies that come under it remained low at an estimated 54.51 percent.

In a bid to check urban apathy among voters, the Election Commission had decided to hold the poll in the middle of the week to prevent people from planning an outing by clubbing the poll-day holiday with the weekend break. It had also run an extensive campaign to encourage voters to come out and vote.

A 23-year-old woman gave birth to a baby in a polling booth in Kurlagindi village of Ballari. Female officials and women voters helped deliver the baby.

Two voters died during the polling process. While a 70-year-old woman died while standing in the queue at a booth in Belagavi district, Jayanna, 49, died minutes after voting at                                            Chikkole, Belur.