23 April,2009 02:25 PM IST | | MiD DAY Correspondent
The first phase of polling in 17 of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State began at 7 am today.
According to the latest reports, by 2 pm, the state registered almost 30 per cent voting. The break-up of percentage in three constituencies under Bangalore city is as follows: Bangalore North 27 per cent, Bangalore Southu00a027 per cent and Bangalore Central 25 per cent. The total number of voters in these three constituencies stands at around 5.9 million. And according to the data available, around 50 percent of Bangalore's voting population belongs to the age group of 18-39.
Voting machines in a few polling stations developed minor problems before and during the polling initially. Much to the credit of the polling officials who were deployed in the vicinity of the booths to face such eventualities, there were no major hold ups in polling.
Around 1,300 voters staged a protest over alleged land acquisition by the BBMP and boycotted polls at Yelahanka. But otherwise the polling passed peacefully without any untoward incident.
SAPS
For the first time in the country, the election authorities have introduced a Susceptible Area Response System (SAPS) in all the 17 constituencies through which complaints against violation of the model code of conduct will getu00a0a near-immediate response.
u00a0u00a0 A total of 271 candidates (256 men and 15 women) are in the fray for the first phase of polls in the State. Prominent leaders contesting the polls are former chief ministers H D Kumaraswamy (Bangalore Rural), N Dharam Singh (Bidar), M Veerappa Moily (Chickaballapur), and, leader of the opposition in the Legislative Assembly S Mallikarjuna Kharge (Gulbarga), union minister of state for shipping K H Muniyappa (Kolar), former union ministers C K Jaffer Sharief (Bangalore North) and Ananth Kumar (Bangalore South).
