Polling in 106 gram panchayats in Mangaluru, Moodbidri and Bantwal taluks in Dakshina Kannada district was peaceful on Tuesday. Amid the Covid-19 scare, the voters exercised their franchise enthusiastically.
The polling began at a slow pace from 7 am and gained pace by noon. DK district had registered an average of 14.48 % polling by 9 am. Mangaluru registered 14.6% polling, Moodbidri-15.64% polling, and Bantwal 13.7% polling.
By 11 am, the average polling was 33.93 % with Mangaluru - 31.87%, Moodbidri - 32.80%, and Bantwal - 34.58%. DK had registered 50.26% polling by 1 pm. Bantwal had registered 51.72%, followed by Moodbidri - 48.88% and Mangaluru - 48.82%. The overall percentage in the district was 62.43 at 3 pm.
Finally, the DK district registered 75.05% polling. Mangaluru registered 72.23%, Moodbidri-77.77%, and Bantwal-72.82% polling.
Asha workers were seen checking the temperature of voters with the help of thermal scanners at polling booths. Use of sanitiser was mandatory before exercising the franchise.
Bantwal MLA Rajesh Naik exercised his franchise at the Thenka Edapadavu Government Primary School in Mangaluru taluk. Former minister B Ramanath Rai cast his vote at Thodambila School in Kallige Gram Panchayat after offering special puja at the Venkatramana Temple in Bantwal.
MLA U T Khader, along with his wife, exercised their franchise at the ZP Higher Primary School at Boliyar.
Khader said that the voters are dejected over the anti-poor governance of the Centre and the State governments. The Congress-supported candidates will have an upper hand in the GP elections across Karnataka, he said.
Mistakes aplenty
Mistakes were plenty in voters list. A wife and husband were directed to different polling booths at Perne in Bantwal. While Dombaiah’s name is in Perne part 1 with sequence number 1,136, his wife Girija was included in part 2 with sequence number 49. Similarly, Rohini S Gowda was included in part 1, sequence number 889, while her husband was in ward two part 1 and serial number 232.
Polling officials on duty were forced to buy food. As some polling booths like Sajipanadu, Bolla were located in remote places, polling officials were left starving.
3,854 candidates in fray
There were 3,854 candidates contesting for 1,631 seats in 106 gram panchayats in Mangaluru, Moodbidri and Bantwal taluks. There were 817 polling booths with 322 in Mangaluru taluk, 99 in Moodbidri and 396 in Bantwal taluks.
Out of 322 polling booths in Mangaluru, 119 were sensitive, 47 hyper-sensitive and 156 are general booths. In Moodbidri, there were 42 sensitive, 21 hyper-sensitive and 36 general polling booths, while Bantwal had 86 sensitive, 46 hyper-sensitive and 264 general polling booths.