There have been several violent incidents reported from various places during polling to the Karnataka Assembly elections on Wednesday, confirmed by the police in PTI reports
At Masabinal village in Basavana Bagewadi taluk of Vijayapura district, several angry villagers destroyed some electronic voting machines, VVPAT (Voter Verifiable
Paper Audit Trail) machines and damaged the vehicles of polling officers, after "rumours" that the officials were "changing" the EVMs and VVPATs.
In the Padmanabhanagar constituency in Bengaluru, some youth armed with sticks attacked their political rivals in a polling booth at Papaiah Garden. They went on a rampage in which a few women who were standing in queue to vote sustained injuries, the sources said.
At Sanjeevarayanakote in Ballari district, some Congress and BJP workers came to blows.
Clash between Congress and Janata dal (Secular) supporters in Mangaluru
A complaint and a counter-complaint have been lodged at the Bajpe police station in Mangaluru after Congress workers alleged that the supporters of Mangaluru North Janata Dal (Secular) candidate B A Mohiuddin Bava assaulted them on Tuesday night.
Two Congress workers who were injured in the scuffle, Nizam and Hasher, have been admitted to a private hospital.
Bava had switched over to JD(S) recently after he was denied a Congress ticket.
Sources said the incident occurred when Congress workers intercepted a car alleging that the JD(S) candidate had brought money in a car to distribute to voters, which led to an altercation between the two groups.
Later, both groups went to Bajpe police station where Bava’s supporters allegedly assaulted Nizam and Hasher in front of the candidate. The injured Nizam used to work as Bava’s car driver and had recently pledged support to Mangaluru North Congress candidate Inayat Ali.
JD(S) workers, in a counter-complaint, alleged that Nizam and other Congress workers assaulted Bava, who also sought treatment at a hospital.
Meanwhile, in Belthangady, police arrested town panchayat vice president Jayananda Gowda of BJP late night on Tuesday after he was caught red-handed distributing cash to voters.
Sources said Gowda was caught by former MLA and Congress leader Vasanth Bangera at the Kallaguttu colony in the taluk.
