The Hindu Business Line : Polling peaceful in DK, Udupi districts

According to preliminary estimates, nearly 60 per cent of polling has been recorded in these districts. A team of journalists, which visited various places in interior Dakshina Kannada district, found voters standing in queues to cast their votes with women outnumbering men in some booths. However, most of them favoured maintaining secrecy of their votes.

Electronic voting machines (EVMs), which have replaced the paper ballot, seem to have become a hit among voters in these districts. Though there were minor glitches in the operation of EVMs in some areas, they were set right immediately.

Senior citizens actively took part in the polling process. While the 94-year-old Lucy Sequera exercised her franchise at Kinnigoli, the 80-year-old Ramanna Shetty and his wife did cast their votes at Edapadavu. In Kundapur, the 91-year-old Vincent Lobo, assisted by his son, polled his vote. They did not find any difficulty using EVMs.

The Congress candidate for Mangalore Lok Sabha constituency and former Chief Minister, Mr Veerappa Moily, exercised his franchise in Mangalore in the morning, whereas the BJP candidate for Bantwal Assembly Constituency and former President of Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Ltd, Mr B. Nagaraja Shetty, was seen interacting with people at Edapadavu in Bantwal taluk of the district.