VIPs, candidates, celebs among early voters in Karnataka

Bengaluru, April 18 (IANS) VIPs, including political leaders, celebrities and candidates were among the early voters who exercised their franchise in 14 Lok Sabha seats across central and southern Karnataka on Thursday.

"Among the early voters were 86-year-old Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, his wife Chennamma, his two sons -- Chief Minister H.D.Kumaraswamy and PWD Minister H.D. Revanna, their wives Anitha and Bhavani, and his grandsons Prajwal and Nikhil," a poll official told IANS.

Other political leaders, who cast their ballot in the first two hours of voting between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., included Defence Minister and Rajya Sabha member from the state Nirmala Sitharaman, state Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, Congress state unit President Dinesh Gundu Rao, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah, BJP legislators B.R. Ashok and Suresh Kumar, and its Rajya Sabha member from the state Rajeev Chandrashekar.

The candidates, who voted early, included BJP's Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda and his Congress rival Krishna Byre Gowda in Bangalore North, BJP's Tejsavi Surya and his Congress rival B.K. Hariprasad in Bangalore South, BJP's P.C. Mohan and his Congress rival Rizwan Arshad in Bangalore Central, BJP's Pratap Simha and his Congress rival C.H. Vijayshankar, BJP's A. Manju in Hassan and its Tumkur candidate G.S. Basavaraju and former central Ministers in the previous UPA government K.H. Muniyappa and M. Veerappa Moily.

Among the celebrities were Kannada superstar Sudheep, Tara, Shivaraj Kumar, Puneeth, Raghavendra, Darshan and Yash.

Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murthy and her son Rohan Murthy also voted at Jayanagar in the Bangalore South seat.