The voting was peaceful in Madikeri and Virajpet Assembly constituencies which come under Mysore Lok Sabha constituency. While Madikeri recorded 73.84 per cent voter turn out, Virajpet recorded 70.04 per cent thus registering a total voting percentage of 71.94.

The voting was peaceful without any untoward incidents. The voters have decided the fate of the 15 candidates including H Vishwanath of Congress, Prathap Simha of BJP and Chandrashekaraiah of JDS. The counting is scheduled for May 16, at Mysore District Centre.

The voting was brisk in almost all polling booths at morning and in some booths voters turned out afternoon. Madikeri observed drizzling at 2 pm, but it stopped soon after 20 minutes without disturbing the polling process.

Voters stood in long queue to excersice their franchise at Madikeri, Onachalu, Moornadu, Virajpet, Arji, Ammatti-Kaarmaadu, Siddapur, Nelmahudikeri, Vaalnuru, Nanjarayapattana, Kushalanagar, Somwarpet, Guddehosur, Suntikoppa, Kambibaane, Chettalli and other areas. Senior citizens took help from others to cast their vote.

First time voters were happy after exercising their franchise. They showed their fingers marked with ink to media persons.

In Dabbadka polling booth, the voting was delayed by one and half hours because of some problem in Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). The staff had to change the EVM to start the polling.

In Madikeri, the stores and complexes were closed and the city wore a deserted look. One of the resident of city said that because of awareness programmes, the turnout was good.

As it was government holiday and some private companies also declared holiday, the voters’ turnout was good. People came from far away places to exercise their franchise, he said.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / Madikeri – DHNS, April 17th, 2014