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Polling from 7 am to 5 pm; There are 84 hyper sensitive booths

The district administration has made all preparations for the conduct of free and fair ULB polls on Thursday. In all, 677 candidates are contesting for 189 seats in seven ULBs in the district and the polling will be held from 7 am to 5 pm.

Elections will be held for one city corporation, four town municipal councils (TMCs) and two town panchayats.

Addressing a press meet here on Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner N Prakash said of the 544 polling booths in the seven ULBs, 70  have been identified as sensitive and 84 as hyper sensitive. The MCC limits has the highest number of sensitive booths (31) followed by Bantwal (12), Puttur (10) Sullia (nine), Belthangady (three), Ullal (three) and Moodbidri (two). The authorities have classified the highest number of booths (61) as hyper sensitive in the MCC and behind it are Bantwal (11), Puttur (10) Moodbidri (three); Sullia (three) and Belthangady (two).
 
A head constable and a police constable will be deployed at sensitive and hypersensitive booths. A police constable and a home guard will be on duty at other booths. A videographer has been deployed to all the hyper sensitive booths to videograph the electioneering process, said the DC.

The DC said about 3,000 polling personnel have been deployed for the smooth conduct of the elections. This includes 47 sector officers and 68 police sector teams. As many as 32 sector officers and 47 sector police teams will be deployed in the MCC limits.

As many as 226 female candidates are trying their luck in seven ULBs. The break up of total of number of candidates with women in brackets is as follows:Mangalore City Corporation (243, 93); Moodbidri (77, 29), Ullal (93, 31), Bantwal (83, 27), Puttur (88, 31), Belthangady (38, 22) and Sullia (55, 24).

As many as 1,230 police personnel, 23 KSRP platoons, 6 DAR platoons, and 175 home guards have been deployed.

Voters

The total number of electorate is 4,63,791—2,37,809 women and 2,25,982 men. The district administration will use 84 buses, 22 jeeps and 27 maxi cabs for transporting the officials and EVMs.

To a query on EVMs, the DC said that the Election Commission has sent new EVMs to the district. All the EVMs have been checked. If there was any fault in the EVMs, the official in charge of the polling booth should send a message to the sector officers, who will be having additional EVMs.

The political parties are allowed to open a help desk 200 metres away from the polling booth.

The help desk should have only one table and two chairs. The use of party flag near the polling booth would amount to violation of code of conduct , said MCC Commissioner Dr Harish Kumar.

Additional DC Dayanand was present.

Election code violations rampant; supporters arrested

 Shivanand, contestant of Congress Belur Town Municipal Council (TMC), ward no seven has been arrested on charges of alluring voters on Wednesday. Eshwar, friend of Shivananda was also arrested in this regard.

After examining the car, which was suspiciously parked near Belur Chennakeshavaswamy temple in the noon, police found six liters of liquor and Rs 40,500 in it, along with which handbills requesting votes for Shivanand. 

Immediately police apprehended Shivananda (Kayi Shivu) and his friend Eshwar. Circle inspector confirmed about the complaint being lodged at Belur police station.

Eshwar, who is said to have been suffering from heart ailments, collapsed on premises of the court. He was rushed to Belur government hospital and was shifted to Hassan for further treatment. 
However, in a press meet in the evening, MLA Y N Rudresh Gowda refuted charges on Shivananda and suspected role of miscreants in ‘tainting’ name of Shivananda.

He clarified that the cash seized belonged to Eshwar and was not brought to distribute. “Someone has unkowingly kept the liquor bottles in the car,” he alleged. 

At Hassan

Hassan City Municipal Council (CMC) ward no 19 Congress candidate Neelakanta was arrested at Hassan following charges of violating poll code of conduct.

He was arrested on charges of distributing silver idols and cash to voters. Cash of Rs 19,000 has been seized by the police. Acting on a complaint received by BJP candidate of the ward Ramesh Babu, police made the arrest.

In another incident, one, Hakim was arrested for distributing money to voters for JD(S) candidate of ward no 18 of Belur. Police have seized cash of Rs 25,000. 

He was seen giving away the money to residents near the government school near Lakshmipur. He was distributing money to voters on behalf JD(S) candidate Khader. Circle inspector K Srikant has made the arrest.

In Mandya

Police arrested two persons Satish and Prasanna and seized Rs 38,500 from them in ward number 7, V V Nagar in the city. The money was to be distributed among the voters.

Two mobile phones and electoral list were seized from the duo. However, unconfirmed reports claim that money or other allurements are being distribued by candidates in almost every ward in the city. Officials had conducted raids in Subashnagar and Vidyanagar in the city. Candidates along with their supporters were seen campaigning from door to door in a bid to woo voters to vote for them.

Today’s polls to urban local bodies, a litmus test for political parties

21,974 candidates in fray in around 5,000 wards across the State

 
Elections to 208 urban local bodies (ULBs), billed as the semifinals for the ensuing Legislative Assembly polls, will be held on Thursday.

Around 85 lakh voters, that is 20 per cent of the state’s total electorate, are eligible to exercise their franchise in the elections being held for seven city corporations (excluding Bangalore), 43 city municipal corporations, 65 town municipal councils and 93 town panchayats across the State.

Polling will be held between 7 am and 5 pm and counting of votes will be taken up on March 11.
As many as 10,482 polling stations have been set up of which 3,146 have been declared sensitive or hyper-sensitive. At total of 46,120 polling personnel will manage the election process.

As many as  21,974 candidates are in fray for 4,867 seats in the 208 ULBs. Congress has fielded the highest number of candidates (4,492), followed by BJP (3,954) and the JD-S (3,651).

As many as 85 candidates have been elected unopposed. No nomination papers were received in  24 wards including all the 23 wards in Terdal Town Municipal Council in Bagalkot district and one ward in Chikkballapur City Municipal Council.

The two new regional parties, the BSR Congress of former minister B Sriramulu and the KJP of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, will be testing political waters for the first time.

The outcome of the poll will reveal the impact of their outfits on the state’s political landscape.
Thursday’s civic polls will be a litmus test for all major parties. For the ruling BJP, which has a strong hold in urban areas, the elections are crucial to prove its popularity, particularly after Yeddyurappa launched the KJP.

The heads of political parties have been insisting that the outcome of the poll can’t be termed as a pointer to the Assembly election results.

High-voltage campaign

The Congress, which launched a high-voltage campaign across the state, is seeing the civic polls as a stepping stone to come back to power in the Assembly and also regain control over its erstwhile strong fortresses.

The JD(S) is making use of the polls to consolidate its influence in the old Mysore belt and also to make inroads into the north Karnataka region.

  The declaration of the civic polls had caught all political parties off-guard, particularly with elections to the Assembly due in a couple of months. In the previous elections held in 2007, the Congress had taken the first place winning 1,606 wards followed by the JD(S) with 1,502 wards. The BJP stood third bagging 1,180 of the total 5,007 wards.

Parties make last-ditch efforts to woo voters

Cash, liquor and valuables seized during raids

 
  Political parties continued to their last-ditch effort to woo voters on the penultimate day of the civic polls. Cash and valuables allegedly meant for enticing voters were seized at several places across the State on Wednesday.

The team for enforcing model code of conduct seized Rs 2.42 lakh in cash from the workers of several political parties during raids in Bellary. A sum of Rs 1.86 lakh being transported by a two-wheeler was seized near Agadi Mareppa Colony in the early morning hours of Wednesday.

Two men who were transporting the cash fled the spot in another vehicle. Two Congress workers were arrested in connection with the incident.

Huge quantity of liquor was also seized during raids at various locations.

Fan coupons

Poll officials seized 53 fans kept at an electrical shop and allegedly meant for voters were seized in Hospet. It is said the workers of BSR Congress had issued coupons at the doorsteps of the voters asking them to obtain a fan by producing the coupons at the electrical shop.

On getting information of the violation, a team headed by municipal commissioner K Rangaswamy raided the electrical shop and seized the fans. A case has been registered against the owner of the electrical shop.

Cash found

Cash amounting to Rs four lakh was found on the premises of a party office in Holalkere, Chitradurga district.

According to tahsildar Sowjanya, Congress workers suspected there might be cash in the car of former legislator M Chandrappa, parked on the office premises.

A tussle ensued between the Congress and Karnataka Janata Party workers over the allegation. However, no cash was found in the car, but was later found on the office premises, she said.

Candidates held

Shivananda, a Congress candidate in Belur, Hassan district, was arrested on charges of alluring voters. Six liters of liquor and Rs 40,500 in cash was seized from the car parked near Channakeshavaswamy temple in Belur. Similarly, Neelakanta, a candidate for the Hassan City Municipal Council poll was also arrested on charges of violating model code of conduct.

BU exams rescheduled

  The Bangalore University has rescheduled the first semester examination of MEd scheduled for Thursday in view of the civic polls.

The examination for the paper ‘Philosophical and Psychological Foundation of Education,’ will now be conducted on March 20. The other examinations will be held as per the time table announced earlier.