Daijiworld Media Network—Udupi (HB)
Udupi, May 26: Preparations for the village panchayat elections are on in full swing in Udupi district. The district authority is all set for the gram panchayat level election to be held on Friday May 29. There are 155 village panchayats in the district and the nomination process has been completed. There are a total of 7, 38, 608 voters in Udupi district of which 3, 53, 190 are men and 3, 85, 418 are women.
There are 4,740 candidates contesting the election in the district of which 2, 229 are women and 2, 511 are men. Since 16 new village panchayats have been added, there are 75 more seats this year.
The total reserved seats are 2, 398, out which 1,161 are for the general category and 1, 237 are for women. Approximately 159 seats are reserved for schedule caste women out of 186 scheduled caste seats and both men and women could contest for the remaining 27 seats. The total scheduled tribe reservation seats are 197, of which 166 seats are reserved for women and the remaining 31 are for both men and women.
There are 582 reservation seats for ‘A’ category backward class candidates of which those 323 seats are for women while men and women could contest for the remaining 259 seats. There are 79 seats for women under reservation out of the 145 posts in backward class ‘B’ while men and women candidates could contest for the rest of the 66 seats. There are 1,288 seats in general class of which 510 are reserved for women and the rest of the 778 are open to all. A total of 131 poll stations are considered sensitive and 59 very sensitive, out of the 907 polling stations. As many as 54 polling stations are in Naxal-affected areas while 663 are in the general category.
Rejected nominations
A total of 43 nomination papers were rejected after scrutiny in Udupi district, 16 from Udupi, 18 from Kundapur, and 18 from Karkala were considered as invalid. There are 2,738 candidates in Udupi, 2,470 in Kundapur, and 1,130 in Karkala contesting the election.
Unanimously selected candidates
Candidates in eight village panchayats have been selected unanimously by the party activists. They include 10 from Kedur of Kundapur taluk, 9 from Korgi, 11 from Molahalli, 13 of Hardalli Mandalli, 21 seats from Kokkarne, 11 from Kuchchur of Kundapur taluk, 12 each from Nandalike and Belmannu. The election will be held for one seat each in Cherkady (Kampankatte) and Belve.
The Nagarika Samiti members are participating in Kemmennu and Varamballi panchayat. There are 59 village panchayats in Udupi, 62 in Kundapur, 34 in Karkala, and there are 875 village panchayat constituencies in the district. The code of conduct will be in effect till June 7.
District commissioner R Vishal and SP Annamalai will hold many meetings on preparation and will take peace-keeping measures. A flying squad will be formed for the smooth functioning of the election.
According to Mallika Balakrishna, women have acknowledged the reservation seats and thus, came forward to contest the election. She said that a villager opined that she missed an opportunity due to her age being 62 and added that the villagers are giving good response compared to the previous elections.
Congress party leaders district-in charge minister Vinay Kumar Sorake, MLA Pramod Madhwaraj, Oscar Fernandes, and Jayaprakash Hegde took the leadership of election canvassing to motivate the voters.
In the BJP, Shobha Karandlaje, MP of Udupi, MLA Sunil, MP Kota Srinivas Poojary, and former MLA Raghupathi Bhat took on this responsibility. Two parties have appointed their own supervisor at the rural level. K M Asha, joint director of co-operative societies, Mysore region, has been appointed as an election observer for Udupi district.
During the first phase on May 29, polling will be held in 15 districts—Mysuru, Chikkamagaluru, Dakshina Kannada, Hassan, Kodagu, Mandya, Chamarajnagara, Udupi, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Haveri, Bagalkote, Uttara Kannada, Dharwad, and Gadag.
The DC circular says that the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages should be banned during the election and counting day. Dry days are from midnight of May 27 to midnight of May 29, and from midnight of June 4 to midnight of June 5.
No party politics in village panchayat elections
Interestingly, candidates are seeking votes on a non-party basis, but the candidates are directly supported by one or the other party. Candidates are allowed to carry pamphlets containing personal achievements along with the party symbol. Many of the candidates alleged that the symbol process was delayed so they have lesser time to cover all the areas.
Social media in campaigning
Nowadays, social media is playing a crucial role in building public opinion. Many of the candidates have already changed their profile images, are tagging images, symbols, and passing messages by seeking votes in their friends’ circle, amongst relatives, and so on. So, it would be a good reason for the variation in results. Finally, the result depends on voters. The public should be aware of the power of votes.
Elections will be held on a non-party basis and a total of 94,458 GP members will be elected by an electorate of 2.81 crore during the two phases of polling. Fifty per cent of the seats are reserved for women. Polling will not be held in 229 GPs as their tenure will end after August 2015.
During the second phase, on Tuesday June 2, polling will be held in the remaining 15 districts—Bengaluru urban, Bengaluru rural, Ramanagara, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Bidar, Ballari, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur, and Koppala.
As many as 47 nomination papers were rejected after scrutiny for gram panchayat elections in Udupi district.