Abhijith N Kolpe

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru May 10: Dakshina Kannada district is gearing up for the crucial assembly election which is just two days away. In the eight constituencies there are over 1858 polling stations and the district administration is all set to conduct the polls in peaceful and efficient manner.

Deputy commissioner and others in press meet

Pink Booth and Ethnic Booth

For the first time, 20 pink and 5 ethnic booths have been set up in the district to attract the voters. Belthangady, Moodbidri, Bantwal, Puttur and Sullia will have one pink polling booth each while St Victoria Girls High School, Lady Hill, DKZP Higher Primary Schools in Bejai, Gandhinagar school, St Aloysius Higher Primary School, Urwa and Government Girls PU College, Balmatta of Mangaluru South constituency will be the pink polling stations. In Pink booths, polling station will be manned by women dressed up in pink.

Ethnic Booth

DKZP Higher Primary School, Neria, DKZP Model Higher Primary School, Bellayur, Kendriya Model Residential School, Madhya, Suratkal, DKZP Upgraded Higher Primary School, Balnadu and DKZP Higher Primary School, Subramanya have been selected to set up the ethnic polling stations.

Out of 20 pink booths, two of them, Gandhinagar School and Ladyhill School, have been identified as model polling booths. Model polling booths will be innovative where there will be facilities for the voters, such as lounge, reception area, chairs, staff to look for voters and many more.

Chunavana App

Chunavana App will help users find their assembly constituencies and polling stations. This app was introduced on May 2 by the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer, which is now available on Play Store.

There are over 10,911 disabled voters this time while 5,756 are physically challenged, 829 are blind, 1006 are deaf and 3,320 are having other disability. Focusing on these disabilities, district administration has made special arrangements to felicitate these voters and will also procure wheel chairs from government hospitals and private hospitals.

Security

Security has been beefed up ahead of election within the City police commissionerate and district police limits. Over 2,700 personnel and officers (central armed paramilitary force, civil police, armed police and home guards) have been deployed for the election duties within the city police limits in 877 polling stations within the City commissionerate. While in district police limits, 6 DySP, 14 Police inspectors, 40 PSI, 136 head constable, 660 Police constables, 330 home guards, 20 forest guards along with 11,400 central paramilitary personnel, 3 KSRP, and 1 RAF platoon has been deployed for 981 polling stations.

Election date and counting

Election will be held on May 12 from 7am to 6 pm in all 1858 polling stations of the district. Counting of votes will be held on May 15 at Mahatma Gandhi Centenary Higher Primary School, Bondel (Belthangady, Moodbidri and Mangaluru North) and Mahatma Gandhi Centenary PU College, Bondel (Mangaluru South, Mangaluru, Bantwal, Puttur and Sullia).

Candidate list for 2018 elections

As many as 58 candidates are in fray in the forthcoming assembly election in 8 constituencies of the district.

Belthangady: Vasanth Bangera (Cong), Harish Poonja (BJP), Sumathi Hegde (JDS), Venkatesh Bende (Ind), Jagannath (MEP) and Syed Hassan (Ind).

Bantwal: Ramanath Rai (Cong), Rajesh Naik (BJP), Ibrahim Kailar (Ind), Balakrishna Poojary (Lok Awaz Dal), and Shameer (MEP).

Sullia: Angara (BJP), Dr Raghu (Cong), Sanjeeva (Ind), Sundara (Inde), Sanjeev Baburao (Ind), Raghu (Bahujana Samaja Party) and Chandrashekar (Ind).

Puttur: Shakuntala Shetty (Cong), Sanjeev (BJP), Shekar (Praja Parivarthana Party), Sheshappa Rao (Samanya Janatha Party), I C Kailash (JDS), Abdul Basheer (Ind), Shabana S Sheik (MEP), Majeed (Samyuktha Janatha Dal), Vidyashree (Ind) Chethan Kumar (Ind) and Amarnath (Ind).

Moodbidri: Abhaya Chandra Jain (Cong), Umanath Kotian (BJP), Jeevan Krishna (JDS), Yadav (CPIM) Ashwin Jossy (Ind), Reena Pinto (Ind) and Abdul Rehman (MEP).

Mangaluru North: Moideen Bava (Cong), Bharath Shetty (BJP), Muneer Kaatipalla (CPIM), Maxim Pinto (Ind), Suresh B Salian (Akhila Bharatha Hindu Mahasabha), Supreeth Kumar (Lok Awaz Dal) and PM Ahmed (MEP). 

Mangaluru South: J R Lobo (Cong), Vedavyas Kamath (BJP), Dharmendra (ABHM), Madan (Ind), Srikar Prabhu (Ind), Reena Pinto (Ind), Ratnakar Suvarna (JDS), Mohammed Khaled (Ind), Mohammed Iqbal (MEP) and Sunil Kumar Bajal (CPIM).

Mangaluru (Ullal): U T Khader (Cong), Santhosh Kumar (BJP), Nithin Kuthar (CPIM), K Ashraf (JDS) and Usman (MEP).

Ban on using loud speaker for last 48 hours of polling day. Imposed section 144 for last 48 hours, candidates are not supposed hold any meet or gathering, procession are restricted. Prohibition on Alcohol till midnight of 12 am of polling day.

Police will also keep an eye on social media for last 48 hours before the polling day. There should not be any propaganda material which will instigate violence or unpleasant situation.

Sensitive polling stations

There are 517 sensitive polling stations in the district, out of which 97 polling station has webcasting , micro observers has been appointed for 221 polling station and remaining polling station will be manned by Central para-military force and videographers.