4 ULBs in Udupi district gear up for polls; women voters outnumber men

Udupi, Aug 5: Women voters outnumber male voters in all four urban local body jurisdictions – Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC), Kundapur Town Municipal Council (TMC), Karkala TMC, and Saligrama Town Panchayat – which will go to the polls in the district on August 29.

Addressing presspersons here on Friday, Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Fancis said there were 98,500 voters (50,430 women, 48,069 men, one other) in Udupi CMC limits, 23,164 voters (11,923 women and 11,241 men) in Kundapur, 20,471 voters (10,651 women and 9,820 men) in Karkala, and 13,201 voters (6,880 women and 6,321 men) in Saligrama.

Eligible persons can still apply for inclusion or amendment of names in the electoral rolls by approaching the taluk office concerned till August 17. Udupi CMC will have 99 booths, including 37 marked as sensitive, while Kundapur TMC will have 23 booths, including five sensitive ones. Karkala TMC polls will have 23 booths while Saligrama Town Panchayat polls will have 16 booths, including 13 sensitive and two hyper-sensitive ones.

The State Election Commission has already provided 200 electronic voting machines (EVMs) to be used in these elections. The returning officers (ROs) and assistant ROs for all four ULB polls have been appointed.

The nomination papers for the Udupi CMC polls will be accepted at the CMC office, while for the Saligrama polls, they will be accepted at the town panchayat office. In Kundapur, they will be accepted at the block education office (wards 1 to 8), taluk office (wards 9 to 16), and TMC office (wards 17 to 23).

For the Karkala TMC polls, nomination papers will be accepted at the Mini-Vidhana Soudha (wards 1 to 8 and 17 to 23) and at the old taluk office building (wards 9 to 16).

Mustering and de-mustering centres for these four ULBs are: St. Cecily’s High School in Udupi for Udupi CMC and Saligrama Town Panchayat, Mini-Vidhana Soudha in Kundapur for Kundapur TMC, and Mini-Vidhana Soudha in Karkala for Karkala TMC. The counting of votes will be conducted there.

Expenditure teams will keep a watch on the money spent by the candidates during the polls. Three shift-wise flying squads have been formed for Udupi CMC and Kundapur and Karkala TMCs. The ceiling of expenditure is Rs. 2 lakh (CMC polls), Rs. 1.5 lakh (both TMC polls), and Rs. 1 lakh (Saligrama TP poll), Ms. Francis said.