Mangaluru/ Udupi, Aug 31: The election to three urban local bodies in Dakshina Kannada and four in Udupi district passed off peacefully on Friday barring minor confusions and untoward incidents.
There are 1.17 lakh voters in the three local bodies- the City Municipal Councils (CMCs) of Ullal and Puttur and Town Municipal Council of Bantwal - that have gone to polls in the district. The average polling at the three urban local bodies was 68.5%.
While there are 44,132 voters in the Ullal CMC, where 102 persons are contesting from 31 wards, there are 39,745 voters in the Puttur CMC where 77 people are contesting from 31 wards. There are 34,102 voters in the Bantwal TMC where 71 persons are contesting from 27 wards.
There was a good turnout in Bantwal with 24,676 persons (72.36 %) exercising their franchise.
Nearly half of the electorate had voted by 1 p.m. As many as 28845 (65.36 %) voted in Ullal while 27,299 voted in Puttur by the end of polling at 5 p.m.
There was a heated exchange between a Sub Inspector and the former Congress councillor Usman Kallapu in Kallapu when the former reportedly objected to the latter’s campaign near the polling booth.
Following the spat, more number of policemen were posted at the polling booth.
There were heated exchanges between the police and supporters of political parties in Melangadi, which is among the few wards in Ullal where the Social Democratic Party of India is keenly contesting against Congress.
With the polling booth in Government Urdu School Melangadi being close to the busy public road connecting the Ullal Darghah, police had hard time clearing people from assembling near the polling booth. Brisk polling was seen in Mukkucherry ward where Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Asif, brother of BJP activist Zuber who was murdered by a group of persons outside the mosque in Mukkucherry in October 2017.
Among those who exercised their franchise in the polling booth in Mukkucherry included 80-year-old Mohammed and 72-year-old Abdul Khader, who were brought in separate autorickshaws by their children.
The Congress on Thursday orally accused booth-level officers in Panemangaluru Market in Bantwal of not properly distributing voter slips.
The Congress activists accused that the BLOs have given the voter slips to private persons for distribution.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Kumara said following an inquiry the officials found the allegation unfounded.
Peaceful voting in Udupi city and three towns
As many as 70.30% of voters exercised their franchise for the elections to the four urban local bodies in Udupi district on Friday.
As many as 68.52% of voters cast their votes in the elections for the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) in Udupi. 73.81% of voters in Kundapur and 71.61% of voters in Karkala cast their votes for the Town Municipal Council elections in both the towns. In the elections for the Saligrama Town Panchayat, 75.26% of voters cast their votes.
Priyanka Mary Francis, Deputy Commissioner, said that the polling was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported. Three Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) developed a snag at Kodavoor and Nittoor in Udupi, while one EVM was replaced in Saligrama.
There was some confusion when the polling staff insisted on one of the 22 documents approved by the State Election Commission and not just the voter’s slips. Soon after getting complaints, the polling staff was told to accept the voter’s slips, Ms. Francis said.
Earlier, polling began on a brisk in the four towns of the district and gained momentum as the day progressed. A queue was seen at the Government Higher Primary School polling booth at Gundmi in Saligrama Town Panchayat and 26.16% of voters had cast their votes here by 9.30 a.m.
Raghupati Bhat, MLA, cast his vote at Nittur Private Higher Primary School here, while Pramod Madhwaraj and his mother Manorama Madhwaraj, both former ministers, cast their votes at the Gandhi Higher Primary School polling booth at Malpe here. Vinay Kumar Sorake, former Minister, cast his vote at Girls Pre-University College polling booth here.
Comments
Add new comment