As the vote counting for bypolls in two assembly segments of Karnataka continues, election officials in one of the constituencies encountered a problem when the keys to the Davanagere strongroom went missing.
The locks on the three strongroom, which stored electronic voting machines for the bypolls in the Davangere South Assembly constituency, had to broken to allow entry.
Why election officials breaks Davanagere strong rooms locks
These strongroom located at DRR School on PB Road in the city, and this occurred on Monday.
The locks finally broken in the presence of Returning Officer Santosh Kumar, Deputy Commissioner GM Gangadhara Swamy, and election observer Ramankanth.
Due to this issue, the counting of postal ballots, originally set to start at 7:30 am, was delayed and commenced more than 30 minutes later. Follow this link for the live updates on the Davanagere South results.
Where are the keys?
Karnataka saw strong participation, with both constituencies achieving over 60 percent turnout. Bagalkot recorded 65.68% polling, while Davanagere South had 63.04%. The by-elections held due to the deaths of senior Congress members HY Meti in Bagalkot and Shamanur Shivashankarappa in Davanagere South.
In the Davangere South Assembly constituency, the BJP is leading by 8,446 votes, while the Congress has a lead of 3,207 votes in Bagalkote.
Read also: Government Conducts Emergency Alert Test, Phones Buzz with Nationwide Pop-Up