The two-member Legislative Council constituency of Belagavi witnessed 99.97% polling on Friday. Only three of the 8,849 members did not vote in the elections. Two of them were from Athani taluk and one was from Belagavi taluk. Police officers said that there were no reports of untoward incidents anywhere in the district. The district election helpline officers said they had not received any complaints about errors or delays in the use of ballots.
KPCC working president Satish Jarkiholi spent most of the day in Gunjal village. He sat in a supporter’s home near the gram panchayat office, where polling was going on. He said that this was to ensure that there were no electoral malpractices. He said that in the last Council polls, polling officers had cast over 1,100 fake votes in favour of an Independent candidate. “We are here to see that no such thing happens,” he said.
His son, Rahul Jarkiholi, worked as the official agent of the Congress in Konnur Gram Panchayat and daughter Priyanka Jarkiholi served as the party agent in Shindi Kurbet Gram Panchayat. He had earlier announced that he would function as a party agent in any booth, if needed. However, he could not do so, as election rules did not allow an MLA to be an agent, he said.
In an apparent violation of the code of conduct, Congress MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar displayed to TV cameras the picture of a seer stored on her phone at the polling station 161 in Belagavi city.
As she entered her name and signed the muster, she took out her phone, paid her respects to the photo of late Sri Veeragangadhar Swami, former head of Rambhapuri Mutt, on her phone and then displayed it before TV cameras.
She identified the seer as Nonavinakere Ajja, of whom she was a devotee. “I always carry his picture on my phone wherever I go. I worship him and seek his blessings before embarking on any new venture. That is what I was doing in the polling booth,’’ she told journalists. She denied that it was aimed at influencing voters. However, her political detractors say that she was trying to influence voters of some Lingayat sub-castes, that were followers of the Rambhapuri seer.
BJP spokesperson M.B. Zirali said that the party will take a decision about raising this issue with the Election Commission after studying the incident further.
Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer R. Venkatesh Kumar said that they will look into the matter if anyone complained about it.
However, polling began slowly in the morning. After five hours of polling, only around seven per cent voters had cast their votes. Officers said that only 660 of the 8,849 voters had exercised their franchise till 11 a.m.
In Yamakanamaradi village, only six of the 25 gram panchayat voters had cast votes. But in Gudas and Kakati villages, no one had turned up till 11 a.m. Congress leader Siddu Sunagar said that they had arranged for all members to come together to the booth.
Earlier, election officers had wrongly computed the number of voters as 8,875, as they had counted the 24 additional votes of the two Members of Parliament in the various urban local bodies in the district. They were reduced to one vote each on Friday morning and a fresh count of voters was issued.
Belagavi MP Mangala Angadi voted in Belagavi and Chikkodi MP Anna Saheb Jolle voted in Chikkodi.
Members of Legislative Assembly Anil Benake and Abhay Patil voted at the Belagavi City Corporation polling booth.
Member of Legislative Assembly Anjali Nimbalkar voted in the Khanapur Town Municipal Council booth. Other legislators voted in their hometowns.
