KTK POLL LEAD: 26 per cent polling in Karnataka till noon

        Bangalore, Apr 17 (PTI) Around 26 per cent of the 4.62
crore electorate have exercised their franchise till around
noon in the single-phase polls today in Karnataka, where the
ruling Congress and BJP are battling it out in a hot contest
for 28 seats.
        Voting across the state got off to a moderate to brisk
start, as it began at 7 am and was reported at about 10 per
cent in the first two hours and reached around 25 per cent in
five hours, officials said.
        Two officials on poll duty died of heart attack in
Belgaum and Tumkur districts, police said.
        Polling was proceeding smoothly and peacefully across the
state, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order),
M N Reddy told PTI.
        In the prestigeous contest in Bangalore South, where
Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani is pitted against five-time
MP BJP's Ananth Kumar, the voter turnout was impressive
reaching 30 per cent around noon.
        Polling was however moderate in other two Bangalore
Constituencies-- North and Central.
        Some 85,000 security personnel, including the central
forces, are provide security cover across the state with
54,294 polling booths, 8,658 of which are identified as hyper
sensitive and 14,400 as sensitive.
        The Election Commission has introduced Voter Verifiable
Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system on an experimental basis in
Bangalore South, which is among the seven constituencies in
the country to be chosen for it.
        VVPAT is a printer with drop box. It prints and displays
a slip for seven seconds after the vote is cast so that a
citizen can also see who they cast their vote for. The slip
will then get automatically dropped into the drop box next to
the Electronic Voting Machine and can't be retrieved.
        Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu, former Prime Minister
and JDS chief H D Deve Gowda (Hassan), former Chief Minister B
S Yeddyurappa (Shimoga) and Union Minister M Veerappa Moily
(Chikkaballapur) were among the early voters.
        Udupi-Chikkamagalur had reported about 35 per cent voting
till noon, topping the constituencies that reported brisk
polling, officials said.
        The fate of six former Chief Ministers Deve Gowda
(Hassan), Yeddyurappa (Shimoga), N Dharam Singh (Bidar), Moily
and H D Kumaraswamy (Chikkaballapur) and D V Sadananda Gowda
(Bangalore North) would be sealed in today's polls.
        In the 2009 polls, BJP then holding the reins of power
had bagged 19 seats, leaving six to Congress and three to JDS.
        Both Congress and BJP have been claiming that they are
within the striking distance of winning 20 seats. The two
parties are in direct face-off for 22 seats and in the rest,
JDS is also a serious player.
        Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party is also seeking to gain
a toehold, fielding candidates for all constituencies, the
prominent being former Infosys Director Balakrishnan who is in
the fray from Bangalore Central. PTI KSU BDN