In Karnataka, bye-elections to the Mandya and Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituencies are being held today peacefully.

The state election commission sources informed our correspondent that polling percentage was slow paced at around 14 percent in Bangalore rural and 19 percent in Mandya lok Sabha constituency at 12.00 noon. Apart from some incidents of poll boycott in a few polling booths, voting is going on without any untoward incident.

Film actor Ramya of the Congress is taking on former legislator C?S?Puttaraju of the JD(S) in Mandya, Anitha Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) has locked horns with D?K Suresh of Congress in Bangalore Rural. There are totally 22 contestants in fray. BJP has not fielded its candidates in this by-election. An estimated 36.37 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the 4,360 polling stations of the two constituencies.

Around 25,000 security personnel are deployed on duty. As many as 675 booths have been declared hyper-sensitive and 1,250 sensitive. The polling will be held from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm. The counting of votes is scheduled on August 24.

In Andhra Pradesh, polling is in progress amidst tight security arrangements for by-election to the Avanigadda Assembly constituency in Krishna District. The Election Commission Officials in Hyderabad informed that about 14 per cent polling has been registered till 12Noon.

TDP candidate Hari Prasad and two other Independents are in the fray while other major political parties did not field their candidates. The by-poll was necessitated due to the death of sitting TDP member Ambati Brahmanaih.

Over One lakh 88 thousand voters are eligible to cast their votes at 241 polling stations today. The polling will continue till 5 PM and counting of votes will takes place on coming Friday.