36.61% voter turnout reported till 1 pm in Karnataka

Karnataka registered 36.61 per cent voter turnout during the first half of second phase of polling for the remaining 14 out of total 28 Lok Sabha constituencies Tuesday.

The highest turnout was recorded in Shimogga with 41.66 per cent and the lowest in Gulbarga with 30.48 per cent till 1PM, poll officials said.

Interestingly, both Shimogga and Gulbarga are high profile constituencies.

In Shimogga, former Chief Minister and state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra is pitted against another former Chief Minister S Bangarappa's son Madhu of JD(S).

Raghavendra had defeated Madhu during the bypolls held in November last year, and is seeking re-election.

Madhu is the joint candidate of the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance.

In Gulbarga, the battle is between Congress leader inLok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge and BJP's Umesh Jadhav.

Jadhav against whom the Congress had moved the assembly speaker seeking his disqualification had quit as Congress MLA ahead of polls and joined the BJP.

This election is said to be a tough one for Kharge, a nine-time MLA and two-term Lok Sabha member who has never tasted electoral defeat.

Voting began at 7 AM in 28,022 polling stations thatare mostly in the northern belt of the state, covering theentire Hyderabad-Karnataka and Mumbai-Karnataka regions, acouple of central districts and coastal Uttara Kannada.

As many as 2,43,03,279 voters are eligible to choosefrom among 237 candidates in the fray in the second phase.

Of the 14 constituencies in the second phase, BJP is contesting all the seats while Congress and JD(S), who have an alliance, have fielded their candidates in 12 and 2 constituencies respectively as per the seat sharing arrangement.

The Congress currently has its hold on only 4 out of 14 seats - Chikkodi, Gulbarga, Bellary, Raichur- while the BJP has its sitting MPs in 10 seats.

The 14 constituencies in southern part of the state covering old Mysuru region and couple of coastal districts hadgone to polls on April 18, recording an overall voter turnoutof 68.81 per cent.