Narendra Modi's popularity on test as Karnataka goes to Lok Sabha polls

An estimated 243 crore electorates will test Prime Minister Narendra Modis popularity as 14 out of 28 constituencies in Karnataka go to the polls in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday amid tight securityElaborate arrangements have been made across the states central and southern regions for free and fair polling in 30164 booths spread over 14 parliamentary seats from 7 am to 6 pm amid tight security state Chief Electoral Officer CEO Sanjiv Kumar told IANS here on WednesdayAn estimated 243 crore electorates will test PM NarendraModi s popularity as 14 out of 28 constituencies in Karnataka go to the polls in the secondphase of LokSabhaElections2019 on April 18 amid tight securityLokSabhaElection2019 Dangal2019 GeneralElections2019 pictwittercomB3hEO8IfIvmdash IANS Tweets ians_india April 17 2019The 14 constituencies are UdupiChikmagalur Hassan Dakshina Kannada Chitradurga SC Tumkur Mandya Mysore Chamarajnagar SC Bangalore Rural Bangalore North Bangalore Central Bangalore South Chikkaballapur and Kolar SCPolling in the remaining 14 seats will be held in the west coast and northern regions of the state in the third phase on April 23Of the 243 crore electorates for Thursdays polling 123 crore are male and 120 crore are female voters who will decide the fate of 241 candidates including 15 women and 133 Independent nomineesOf the 15 women in fray only one BJPs Shobha Karandlaje from Udupi belongs to a national party while 7 are Independents including actress Sumalatha AmbareeshThe Congress and its ruling ally Janata DalSecular JDS have not fielded any woman candidate for Thursdays polling for want of winnable candidates though both have one woman candidate each for the third phase of polling scheduled for April 23According to Karnataka Director General of Police DGP Neelamani Raju Bangalore Rural Hassan Mandya and Tumkur are the vulnerable constituencies where additional police forces have been deployed for peaceful and smooth conduct of pollingOf the total booths 16 per cent or 4826 are considered critical in the four seats identified by the policeWe are deploying about 91000 police personnel on election duty in two phases on April 18 and April 23 to ensure peaceful polling and maintain law and order Raju said in a statement hereAmong the constituencies Bangalore North has the highest number of 31 candidates followed by 25 in Bangalore South and 22 each in Bangalore Central Mandya and MysoreThe lowest number of candidates is 6 in Hassan followed by 10 in Chamarajnagar 12 in UdupiChikmagalur and 13 in Dakshina KannadaThe key constituencies in the first phase are all the three seats in Bengaluru Mandya Hassan and TumkurIn the 2014 Lok Sabha elections of the 14 seats the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP and the Congress won 6 each while the JDS won 2Unlike in the past elections the main parties BJP and Congress are locked in straight contests this time as the latter has entered into a prepoll tieup with the JDS to field joint candidates as part of their seatsharing arrangementsOf the 28 seats in the state the Congress is in fray in 21 and the JDS in 7 For the 14 seats that go to the polls on Thursday Congress is in fray in 10 and the JDS in 4The BJP is contesting 13 seats besides supporting multilingual South Indian actress Sumalatha Ambareesh 55 whos contesting as an Independent from the highprofile Mandya seat where the JDS has fielded Nikhil GowdaNikhil 29 an upcoming Kannada film star is the son of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and the grandson of 86yearold JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda who is contesting from Tumkur paving way for his other grandson Prajwal Gowda to fight from Hassan a bastion of the dynastic Gowda clanPrajwal is the son of state PWD Minister HD Revanna who is the second eldest son of Deve GowdaThe JDS has high stakes in the battle of the ballot as three members of the Gowda clan are in the frayDeve Gowda who had won a record nine times from Hassan since 1991 also served as the Prime Minister for 10 months from June 1 1996 to April 21 1997 as the head of the United FrontLeft Front government which fell after the Congress withdrew outside support to itIn Bengaluru which has three parliamentary seats the BJP and the Congress are locked in straight contestsBJP leader and Union Minister DV Sadananda Gowda is recontesting from Bangalore North while twotime sitting MP PC Mohan is trying for a hattrick from the prestigious Bangalore Central seatThe Congress has fielded its state Minister Krishna Byre Gowda against Sadananda Gowda in Bangalore North where the politically dominant Vokkaliga community are present in large numbersIn Bangalore South the BJP has fielded Tejasvi Surya in place of former Union Minister AH Ananth Kumar who passed away in November 2018 after brief illness Kumar represented the seat for a record six times since 1996Surya a 28yearold lawyer in the Karnataka High Court is also a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS and is known to be a fiery orator He is pitted against BK Hariprasad a Congress Rajya Sabha member from the stateFormer Congress Ministers in the UPA government M Veerappa Moily and KH Muniyappa are in the fray from Chikkaballaupur and Kolar respectivelyBJPs Nalin Kumar Kateel and Pratap Simha are recontesting from Dakshina Kannada and Mysore respectivelyCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates