Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad and Kalaburagi civic bodies sees "peaceful" voting

Voting for the city corporations elections of Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad and Kalaburagi, along with bypolls to a few other urban local bodies ended ''peacefully'', poll officials said on Friday.

The elections were held strictly adhering to COVID-19 protocols and guidelines, they said.

Voting began at 7 am for 252 wards across seven urban local bodies, including thecity corporations of Belagavi (58 wards), Hubballi-Dharwad (82), Kalaburagi (55), along with the Doddaballapur City Municipal Council (31), Tarikere Town Municipal Council (23), Bidar City Municipal Council (2) and Bhadravathi City Municipal Council (1), and ended at 5 pm.

Also, 21 wards of various urban local bodies in the state that had fallen vacant due to various reasons, went for the by-polls today.

The Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation saw the highest polling with a voter turnout of 53.81 per cent, followed by the city corporations of Belagavi (50.41 per cent) and Kalaburagi (49.40 per cent), the State Election Commission said Friday.

It was 75.80 per cent in the Doddaballapur City Municipal Council, followed by 74.22 per cent in the Tarikere Town Municipal Council, 68.13 per cent in the Bidar City Municipal Council and 64.27 per cent in the Bhadravathi City Municipal Council.

The counting of votes will take place on September 6.

There were a total of 1,318 candidates in the fray from various political parties for 252 wards across seven urban local bodies and 59 for the 21 wards that are going for bypolls.

According to the commission, there were over 14.01 lakh eligible voters in 252 wards, with the highest being in Hubballi-Dharwad - 8.11 lakh.

Elections were being held as the term of some of these local bodies had ended and due to orders of the High Court, the Commission had said.