Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Mar 30: Deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district, Sasikanth Senthil, addressing a press meet here on Friday March 29, revealed that out of 15 persons who submitted their nomination papers in Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency, one nomination was rejected, while one person withdrew his nomination. Therefore, 13 candidates have remained in the fray, he stated.

The nomination of Sudarshan, fielded as dummy candidate by the BJP, was rejected. Ismail Shaffi K withdrew his nomination on Friday, Senthil revealed. He said that there is no bar on the candidates visiting temples and other religious places but legal action would be initiated if it is found that they had solicited for votes at these places. He said that if a candidate is found seeking votes in religious places, he would be ineligible to fight an election in his entire life.

Te deputy commissioner said that steps would be taken if political parties distribute hats, T-shirts etc containing party symbol or candidates. People who show unruly behaviour or found misbehaving near the polling centers would be acted against and fined, he warned.

He stated that as per the revised voters list of Dakshina Kannada constituency, there are 17,24,566 voters out of which 8,45,283 are men and 8,79,186 are women.

Those who have remained in the fray are Nalin Kumar Kateel (BJP), Mithun M Rai (Congress), S Sathish Salian (BSP), Mohammed Eliyas (SDPI), Vijay Srinivas C (Uttama Prajakiya Party), Supreeth Kumar Poojary (Hindustan Janata Party), and independents, Abdul Hameed, Alexander, Deepak Rajesh Coelho, Mohammed Khalid, Maxim Pinto, Venkatesh Bende, and H Suresh Poojary. 

Udupi-Chikkamagaluru 

Deputy commissioner of the district, Hephsiba Rani Korlapati, addressing a press conference here on Friday March 29, said that out of 14 candidates who filed nominations from Udupi - Chikkamagaluru Lok Sabha constituency two have withdrawn their nominations, leaving 12 people to fight the election. She said that the constituency has 14,98,016 voters. 7,65,823 among them are women and 7,32,193 are men. 30,826 are young voters. 11,861 voters have been identified to be having physical and mental disabilities. If they seek such facilities, they would be provided wheel chairs, thick glass etc as might be necessary, she stated. 

She said that common observer, Krishna Kunal, has suggested increasing the number of 'Sakhi' polling booths in centers where there is predominance of women voters. Accordingly, it has been decided to designate 26 polling booths as 'Sakhi' polling booths, she said.

"The constituency has 1,837 polling booths. 1,111 polling booths in Udupi district have been provided with 1401 presiding officers, 1,405 assistant presiding officers, 2,810 third and fourth polling officers. A total of 5,616 staff have been deployed for election duty. They would be provided training in their respective assembly constituencies," she revealed.

The candidates who will fight the election are P Parameshwar (BSP), Pramod Madhwaraj (JD(S), Shobha Karandlaje (BJP), P Gautham Prabhu (Shiv Sena), M K Dayanand (Proutist Sarva Samaj), Vijayakumar (CPI - ML Redstar), Suresh Kunder (Uttama Prajakiya Party), Shekhar Havanje (RPI) and independents, Abdul Rahman, Amrith Shenoy, M K Ganesh and K C Prakash.