Silvester D'Souza/Justin D'Silva
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru/Udupi (SP)
Updated
Mangaluru/Udupi, Dec 27: Voting has begun in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts for the second and final phase of the gram panchayat election.
For the 25 gram panchayats in Sullia taluk, polling began at 7 am. In some of the booths in the taluk, the rate of voting was relatively slow because of winter morning chill. Voting is being held today to elect 1,500 gram panchayat members belonging to 114 panchayats spread over Beltangady, Puttur, Kadaba and Sullia taluks.
In Udupi district,people vote to elect 1,178 gram panchayat members from 86 taluks spread over Kundapur, Karkala and Kaup taluks.
A total 41 seats in Dakshina Kannada and 65 in Udulpi have already been elected unanimously.
Brisk voting was witnessed across Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts as people lined up outside polling booths from early morning.
By end of day, Dakshina Kannada recorded a voter turnout of 78.69% with Beltangady reporting 78.43%, Puttur 78.45%, Sullia 80.54%, and Kadaba 77.61%.
Udupi meanwhile saw a cumulative voter turnout of 75.42%, with Kapu recording 73.07%, Karkala 76.21% and Kundapur 76.08%.
By 3 pm, Dakshina Kannada recorded a total voter turnout of 65.62%, with Beltangady recording 65.91%, Puttur 65.06%, Sullia 65.09%, and Kadaba 66.15%.
Udupi district reported a total voter turnout of 61.94%, with Kapu reporting 60.08%, Karkala 64.56%, and Kundapur 61.19% by 3 pm.
By 1 pm, Dakshina Kannada witnessed a total voter turnout of 52.64%, with Beltangady recording 53.35%, Puttur 52.85%, Sullia 51.37%, and Kadaba 52.07%.
Udupi district reported a total voter turnout of 50.31%, with Kapu reporting 59%, Karkala 52.49%, and Kundapur 49.49% by 1 pm.
By 11 am, Dakshina Kannada reported an overall voter turnout of 33.41%, with Beltangady recording 33.59%, Puttur 34.23%, Sullia 31.62%, and Kadaba 33.81%.
Voting picked up in Udupi too, with the district witnessing an overall turnout of 31.23%, with Kapu reporting 30.42%, Karkala 33.37%, and Kundapur 30.17%.
By 9 am, Dakshina Kannada recorded a total voter turnout of 14.83%, with Beltangady recording 15.29%, Puttur 15.51%, Sullia 13.81%, and Kadaba 14.03%.
Udupi district recorded a total voter turnout of 12.48%, with Kapu reporting 12.25%, Karkala 13.77%, and Kundapur 12.10%.
Puttur MLA Sanjeeva Matandoor casts vote
Sullia MLA S Angara votes
From across Udupi district
Byndoor MLA Sukumar Shetty casts vote
Former Byndoor MLA Gopal Poojary casts vote
Kundapur MLA Halady Srinivas Shetty votes
Byndoor and Kundapur
Due to confusion regarding the polling box, polling started half an hour late at a polling booth located at Hejamady Kody school. Insertion of ballot paper into the box was posing problem. It took half an hour to rectify the proble. An 80-year-old woman, Vanajakshi, came to the polling booth in a wheelchair at Hejamady government school to cast her vote.
In some polling booths of Padubelle and surrounding, people faced difficulty as their names were not displayed in the voters' list but were provided voter slips to cast the votes.
Speaking to daijiword Kaup, tahsildar said the BLOs were following voter lists of October and not the recent lists updated in November. "The issue has now been resolved and I have informed the BLOs to follow November lists," he said.
MLA S Anagara reached his poling booth at Doddathota polling booth in the third ward of Amaramudnoor gram pancahyat at 7 am along with his familiy members and cast his vote.
As the polling booths having over a thousand voters were split this time, there are 27 additional polling booths. Therefore, none of the queues were too long unlike in the past.COVID rules are being followed scrupulously.
As many as 1,284 personnel have been deployed for polling duties in Belangady, 664 in Puttrur, 596 ink Kadaba, and 584 in Kadaba. The number of polling officials posted in Dakshina Kannada is 3,128 while in Udupi district, 1,192 in Kundapur, 848 in Karkala and 624 in Kaup have been entrusted with election duty.
Verbal friction at Ampar: On the issue of bringing voters for voting in the election, two groups were involved with verbal altercation at Ampar near Kundapur. On seeing that supporters of certain candidates were bringing voters to the booths in their private vehicles, the opponents and their supporters raised objection. Two gangs argued on the issue, after which the police intervened and restored normalcy.
About 3,697 candidates were elected unopposed even as the 2,709 panchayats in Karnataka go for polls on Sunday.
There are 1,05,431 candidates in the fray for 39,378 seats. Polling is being held from 7 am to 5 pm in over 20,728 booths.
The election is taking place amid the Covid-19 pandemic fears, and those who have tested positive or under primary/secondary contacts can vote in the last hour of polling, the state election commission stated in its statement.
Elaborate security and Covid related precautionary measures have been made for the voting, they said, adding that wearing masks and maintaining social distancing is mandatory.
Hand sanitisers will be available in polling booths.The number of voters in each booth has been reduced from 1,500 to 1,000. Anganwadi, ASHA workers and Health Department officials have been roped in for poll duty.
These Panchayat polls are not (officially) fought on party lines and no party symbols are used. However, most candidates are backed by political parties. The state's three main outfits - the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress and Janata Dal Secular - are all keen to assert their dominance in this grass-roots election.
Polling for 3,019 panchayats in 117 taluks were held in the first phase on December 22 and voter turnout was registered at a whopping 82 per cent.
Although Bengaluru has a notorious reputation for not turning out for voting, surprisingly during Afirst phase gram panchayat polls, more than 90 per cent voter turnout was registered, which is a record of sorts as far as Bengaluru is concerned.
Around two lakh people in Bengaluru Urban district will cast their vote in the gram panchayat (GP) elections that will be held in 11 GPs in Bengaluru North and 15 in Yelahanka taluk.
Bengaluru North has about 98,422 voters and there are 538 contenders in the fray for 233 seats. Yelahanka has nearly 1.2 lakh voters and there are 719 contenders for 298 seats.
The cases registered by the SEC indicate that even grass root elections are rampantly using social media sites to woo voters. The SEC has registered more than two dozen cases of candidates violating using party symbols during their campaigns which is a case in point.
Candidates have used their party leaders photographs while campaigning through their Whatsapp or Facebook pages.
The counting for both phases will take place on December 30.
With inputs from IANS