Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje / Spoorthi Ullal / Kishore Peraje / Mohan Kuthar / Inchara Udupi
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP/HB)
Updated
Mangaluru/Udupi, May 29: At the end of the first phase of gram panchayat elections held on Friday May 29, Dakshina Kannada recorded an overall voter turnout of about 74 percent.
The taluk-wise turnout percentage is as follows: Mangaluru 68.73%, Bantwal 73.40%, Beltangady 72.89%, Puttur 75.43% and Sullia 77.94%.
In Udupi district, 71.65 percent of the voters turned up, with Karkala recording the highest turnout of 74.93 percent, followed by Udupi taluk at 70.55 percent and Kundapur at 71.19 percent.
However, elections in two gram panchayats - Bandharu in Beltangady and Padu Perar in Mangaluru taluk have been postponed to May 31, the former due to confusion regarding election symbol, and the latter due to absence of a symbol in ballot paper.
Udupi
Kaup
Vittal Malekudiya (contesting from Kuthlur, Beltangady)
Bantwal
Mangaluru
Voters lined up at their respective booths as polling for the first phase of gram panchayat elections began in 15 districts across the state at 8 am on Friday May 29.
By 3 pm, the voter turnout in Dakshina Kannada stood at 61.30 percent.
Dakshina Kannada recorded a total turnout of 48.73 percent by 1 pm, while Udupi district saw a turnout of nearly 50 percent.
By 11 am, Dakshina Kannada district recorded an overall turnout of 29.46 percent, with 32.50% in Mangaluru taluk, 23.22% in Puttur, 34% in Bantwal, 35% in Sullia and 22.59% in Beltangady.
As voting has been made compulsory this time, the turn out was expected to be on higher side. However, so far there has not been any proposal to impose punishment or fine on defaulting voters. So, the government is intent on spreading awareness about the importance of voting among the general public this time.
Health minister U T Khadar cast his vote at Boliyar Rantadka Jaradagudde Government School, Mudipu. District incharge minister Ramanath Rai and Padmanabha Kottary were among other leaders who cast their votes. Among the voters in Bantwal taluk was a bride, identified as Jayanti, who stopped on the way to her wedding to exercise her franchise at Goltamajal gram panchayat.
Speaking to media, Ramanath Rai said, "The state government under the leadership of chief minister Siddaramaiah has inititated many welfare programmes like Anna Bhagya, Ksheera Bhagya etc. This is a crucial election and I am confident that people will choose Congress-backed candidates."
He also said that the voting had gone on smoothly and there were no untoward incidents.
Vittal Malekudiya, who had been arrested three years ago for alleged links to Naxals and released later, was the cynosure of all eyes at Kuthlur in Beltangady from where he is contesting. Speaking to daijiworld, he said, "I am very happy with the response from the people. I am hopeful of winning but ultimately it is left to the people."
As rain hit many parts of the district, it affected the voter turnout.
Though the voting was largely peaceful, clashes were reported between Congress and BJP workers at Mudamunda near Kerady in Kundapur over the issual of slips in a polling booth. BJP worker Balakrishna Shetty was injured and admitted to Kundapur hospital. Tense atmosphere prevailed for sometime and police deployed additional security. In another place, timely intervention by the police prevented a similar clash between the workers of the two parties.
In all, 6,97,523 voters turned out for voting in gram panchyat election in the entire Udupi district.
One of the candidates sharing his experience said, "Villagers have awareness about casting their vote better than people living in the city."
Due to a change in symbol, there was confusion at Ambalpady I and II during casting votes. The confusion was sorted out with the intervention of election supervisors.
Recounting her first time voting experience, Harshitha Naik (19) who is pursuing her degree in MGM College, said, “The winners have to focus on development works like eradication of poors. I exercised my right with a hope of change in the exiting system. The representatives should work for the public interest”.
Earlier in the morning the bad weather had affected the voting. The light drizzle was interrupting voting in Kundapura- Kumbasi area. As the clouds cleared, the voters came in large numbers and exercised their right of voting.
In all, 19 Kerala Army Police officials were deployed in various naxal affected areas to maintain law and order, including Someshwar Government higher primary school.
Taxis and auto facilities were arranged for especially abled voters. The aged people also came and casted their vote with pride.
K M Asha, joint director of Cooperative societies, Mysore region was appointed as the chief election observer for Udupi district. A three member team was appointed to follow the code of Conduct under the leadership of Vijay Kumar, sub-director, Horticulture department, Rajendra Bekal, managing authority of Udupi Taluk and Diwakar Shetty, education department.
The Udupi district gram panchayat election was held under the guidance of DC R Vishal and SP Annamalai.
Kaup is the biggest constituency with 29 village panchayats. BJP and Congress are said to be dominant parties in Belapu, Padubidri and Shirva panchayat areas.
All over the state, 1,20,663 candidates are vying with each other for 43,579 seats. In the first phase of poll being held on Friday, people will be choosing gram panchayat members for Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu, Mandya, Udupi, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Mysuru, Chamarajanagara, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, and Uttara Kannada districts. Polling this time is through ballots, and for a change, indelible ink will be smeared to the left thumb.
Although 48,621 seats are to be filled this time, no nominations have been received for 554 seats, while election has been unanimous in 4,460 seats. Because of court stay, election is not being held for 28 seats.
DK district has 880 polling booths out of which 65 are in Naxal-affected areas. Altogether, 139 booths have been considered as hyper sensitive, 216 sensitive and 460 booths normal. As many as 7,619 candidates are in the fray, out of which 4,015 are men and 3,604 women.
As many as 4,740 candidates are contesting the election in Udupi district of which 2,229 are women and 2,511 men. 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. They will be casting their votes in 907 polling booths.
The district administrations and police have been keeping extra vigil over naxal affected, sensitive, and super sensitive polling booths.