Voting underway for Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad and Kalaburagi civic bodies

Bengaluru: Voting is underway for the city corporation elections of Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad and Kalaburagi, along with bypolls to a few other urban local bodies, poll officials said on Friday.

The elections are being held strictly adhering to COVID-19 protocols and guidelines, they said.

Voting began at 7 AM for 252 wards across seven urban local bodies and they include city corporations of Belagavi (58 wards), Hubballi-Dharwad (82), Kalaburagi (55), along with the Doddaballapur City Municipal Council (31), Tarikere Town Municipal Council (23), Bidar City Municipal Council (2) and Bhadravathi City Municipal Council (1).

Also, 21 wards of various urban local bodies that had fallen vacant due to various reasons are going for by-polls today.

The polling will end at 5 PM on Friday, while the counting of votes will take place on September 6.

There are a total of 1,318 candidates in the fray from various political parties for 252 wards across seven urban local bodies, while 59 candidates are in the fray for 21 wards that are going for bypolls.

According to the commission, there are over 14.01 lakh eligible voters in 252 wards, with the highest being in Hubballi-Dharwad - 8.11 lakh.

Elections are being held as the term of some of these local bodies has ended and due to orders of the High Court, the Commission has said.