BJP leader and Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu voted on Saturday morning.
Bengaluru is voting today to elect its civic body, amid major concerns of traffic and cleanliness faced by its residents, in a high-prestige political battle. Till 12 noon, just 11 per cent of the electorate had come out to vote.
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Voting is being held for 197 seats of the 198-ward Bengaluru municipal body known as the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike or BBMP.
BJP's Bharati Ramachandra has been declared elected from the Hongasandra ward after the nomination of Congress candidate K Maheshwari was rejected for submitting a false caste certificate.
Half the seats are reserved for women for the first time in this poll. The women's quota was upped from 33 percent to 50 percent earlier this year.
Around 1,200 candidates from mainstream political parties, independents and rebels have filed nominations for the polls.
About 18,000 policemen and 7,000 home guards are ensuring a peaceful polling with additional force in about 700 hyper sensitive and 1,990 sensitive booths, Police Commissioner NS Megharik said. Around 4,000 constables have been brought from outside the city.
Polling will be held in 6,463 booths spread over 197 wards from 7 am to 5 pm and re-polling, if any, on August 24, while counting of votes will be on August 25, said state chief election commissioner PN Srinivasachari.
Prominent Benguluru citizens like BJP leader and Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Independent Parliamentarian Rajeev Chandrasekhar and former Infosys officer Mohandas Pai cast their vote and urged others to vote as well.
The BJP had won the last civic body elections for in 2010 by winning in 116 seats; the Congress won 62 seats and the Janata Dal Secular won 14 and independent candidates won the rest.
The polls were delayed as the state's ruling Congress sought to trifurcate the corporation for better management, saying the city had become too big to be managed by one body. Opposition parties have accused the Congress of delaying the polls because of its insecurities.
Last month, the Supreme Court gave the Karnataka government and the state election commission a deadline to hold the civic polls, rejecting the government's plea for more time for the delimitation or realigning of the wards according to the 2011 census.
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