Vijayapura/Haveri (Karnataka), Nov 2 (IANS): Counting of votes for the Sindagi and Hanagal Assembly constituencies in Karnataka was underway on Tuesday.

The strong rooms were opened and officers began counting postal votes at Sainik College in Vijayapura and at Government Engineering College in Haveri.

There will be 22 rounds of counting in Sindhagi constituency in Vijayapura district, whereas there will be 19 rounds of counting in Hanagal, Haveri.

During the voting on October 30, Hanagal saw a good voter turnout with 83.44 per cent, while Sidhagi recorded 69.41 per cent.

The results are crucial for all major political parties, especially Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, as it will act as the precursor to the upcoming state Assembly elections.

The candidates in Hanagal are Shivaraj Sajjanar from the BJP, Srinivas Mane of the Congress and Niyaz Sheik from the JD (S).

In Sindhagi, the BJP has fielded Ramesh Bhoosanur, while Ashok Managuli is contesting as the Congress candidate and the JD (S) has fielded Shakila Angadi.

The elections were necessitated after the death of BJP MLA C.M. Udasi and JD(S) MLA M.C. Managuli.