Around 70 percent voting in Bellary bypoll

BELLARY: Around 70 percent of the over 170,000 voters Wednesday cast their ballots in the by-poll in the Bellary Rural assembly constituency where mining barons Reddy brothers are taking on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)."The voting was incident-free," Bellary deputy commissioner A.A. Biswas told reporters here.The Reddy brothers have put up their associate and former minister B. Sriramulu as an independent candidate after making him resign both from the BJP and the assembly, to which he was elected in May 2008 from this constituency.The BJP has fielded Bellary businessman P. Gadhilingappa, who is contesting for the assembly for the first time. The Congress nominee is B. Ramprasad who had lost to Sriramulu in 2008. The Janata Dal-Secular is not contesting.Counting of votes is Dec 4.