Raising alarm bells just a day before the Karnataka Assembly election results, several news channels made a shocking claim that over 1,000 postal ballot covers were found in the possession of BJP workers in a hotel in Badami. However, the Election Commission, which probed the allegation, dismissed the media reports.
The EC promptly issued a press release which said that they went to the hotel along with the police and found nothing as such at the spot. The postal ballots were said to be those of government servicemen who couldn’t cast their vote due to election duty.
Following the clarification from the EC, media channels withdrew their claims. However, Congress spokesperson Divya Spandana asked the media channel why it had deleted the tweet which had made the claim.
.@CNNnews18 why have you deleted this tweet? pic.twitter.com/E3uNcYKFtR
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) May 15, 2018
The Badami constituency in Vijayapura district is crucial, as incumbent Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and BR Sriramulu, an aide of tainted mining baron Janardhana Reddy, of the BJP are contesting from this seat.
Like Siddaramaiah, who is also contesting from Chamundeshwari, Sriramulu is contesting from another seat, Molakalmuru, as well.
Karnataka went to the polls on May 12. The voter turnout registered was 72.13%, the highest in the state in over 35 years.
Out of the 224 constituencies, 222 went to polls, as voting for the other two constituencies – Bengaluru’s Raja Rajeshwari Nagar and Jayanagar – were postponed due to election malpractice and the death of a contestant respectively.
A single-phase polling was held in the 222 constituencies, including 36 reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and 15 for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 26 in Bengaluru.
Karnataka has an electorate of 4.97 crore, including 2.52 crore men and 2.45 crore women. New voters were 15,42,000 in the 18-19 age group.
Voting was held at 58,008 polling stations in 30 districts across the state, with 600 of them marked as pink booths, manned by all-women personnel, and 28 as ethnic booths.
Barring minor disruptions, the elections concluded peacefully.