Bengaluru: In the first phase of ZP/TP elections, 15 districts across the state will go to polls on Saturday. Byelections to three Assembly constituencies, Hebbal in Bengaluru, Devadurga in Raichur district and Bidar also will be held today. The voting would be held from 7 am to 5 pm.                        
               
The ZP/TP elections to 550 Zilla Panchayat (ZP) seats and 1,945 Taluk Panchayat (TP) seats are being held in two phase, in which a total number of 2,087 candidates are in the fray. In the first phase on Saturday – Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Kolar, Chikaballapur, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Belagavi, Haveri, Bagalkot, Uttara Kannada, Dharwad, and Gadag is going to polls. The second phase of the ZP/TP elections for the remaining 15 districts will be held on February 20. Counting of votes for both the first and second phase of the ZP/TP elections will be taken up on February 23.

As many as 20 candidates are in fray for the high-profile the Hebbal seat, which witnessed high-voltage campaigning by political parties in the last 10 days. The Congress has fielded C K Abdul Rahaman Sharief, while two-time MLC Y A Narayana-swamy is contesting on a BJP ticket. Ismail Shariff is the JD(S) candidate. Up north,  Bidar is witnessing a pitched battle between Rahim Khan of the Congress and Prakash Khandre of the BJP with Ayaz Khan of the JD(S) in the fray. In Devadurga, it is an all-in-the-family fight between Rajashekhar Naik (Cong), K Shivanagouda Naik (BJP) and Karemma Gopalakrishna (JD-S).

The results of the three bypolls will be out on February 16.

The district administration and the police have made elaborate security arrangements to ensure smooth conduct of the polls.
 
Electronic voting machines would be used in both the elections.  

The ZP/TP elections in Betadur in Dharwad district, where Lance Naik Hanmanthappa Koppad was cremated on Friday, has been put off to February 15.