Repolling ordered in 70 booths in Karnataka

EC has ordered repolling in 70 polling booths in 11 Lok Sabha seats that witnessed irregularities during the polls.

Election Commission has ordered repolling tomorrow in 70 booths coming under 11 Lok Sabha constituencies that witnessed electoral irregularities during the first phase of polling yesterday.

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According to Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer, Abhijit Dasgupta, the constituencies where repolling has been ordered are: Bangalore North (six polling booths), Davangere (nine), Bijapur (three), Bangalore South (20), Koppal (five), Bagalkote (five), Bidar (one), Chikkaballapura (six), Kolar (eight), Gulbarga (three) and Bellary (4 polling booths).

Electoral irregularites that made authorities order repolling mainly pertained to damaging of electronic voting machines as sporadic incidents of violence marred the first phase that saw 15 Lok Sabha constituencies and 120 assembly segments go to polls.

Elections would be held in the remaining 13 Lok Sabha constituencies and 104 Assembly segments in Karnataka in the second phase on April 26.

It was the first time that EVMs were used in all the constituencies in Karnataka.

The Election Commission has come under flak from a large number of voters who alleged that their names were missing in the electoral rolls and they could not vote yesterday. The list also included Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar.