Fate of candidates to be out by noon

All parties are hopeful of victory; tight security at counting centre

The fate of 14 candidates in Lok Sabha bypoll fray sealed in EVMs will be decided on Wednesday as counting for Udupi-Chikmagalur bypoll will be held at T A Pai English Medium School in Kunjeebettu.

The counting will start at 8 am and the results are expected to be out by 1 pm.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Udupi Deputy Commissioner Dr M T Reju informed that as many as 1,100 officials have been deployed for the purpose of counting. There are 8 strong rooms and 8 counting halls.

Except for Kaup assembly constituency, the remaining assembly segments will have 14 counting tables each. Kaup will have 10 counting tables. As many as 45 counting agents are deployed, he added.

The counting of votes in the 108 EVMs will be done in single round and there will be as many as 16 rounds.

Udupi SP Dr Boralingaiah M B informed that a total number of 225 police personnel including higher officials have been deployed for maintaining security in the counting area. As many as 3 DySPs, 6 Police Inspectors, 14 PSIs, 20 ASIs and around 180 HCs and PCs are appointed for the purpose.

Besides, one company of Central Industrial Security Force and 2 platoons each of KSRP and DAR are positioned at the counting centre. Additional police forces have been deployed at hyper sensitive and sensitive areas as precautionary measure, he informed. 

The destiny of three major contenders Sunil Kumar of BJP, Jayaprakash Hegde of Congress and Boje Gowda of JD(S) will be out on Wednesday. BJP is very much keen to retain the seat as it was vacated by D V Sadananda Gowda after becoming chief minister. S L Boje Gowda is all confident of victory. Speaking to Deccan Herald, he said: “I am hoping for best. In fact, I am confident that we will definitely win. As our party has worked hard and has given good performance, I am sure we will get better results,” he said.

Congress candidate Jayaprakash Hegde is over confident of winning the bypoll with a huge margin. “There should not be any problem. I am confident that success will be ours and also with a huge margin,” he said.

BJP contender Sunil Kumar said that there is no doubt regarding his victory. “It is cent per cent assured. I am expecting success with a difference of 25,000 to 30,000 votes,” he said.

As many as 8,52,954 voters out of total 12,52,390 voters in the constituency have exercised their franchise in the bybypoll that was held on March 18. Udupi district recorded 72.43 percent polling, while Chikmagalur district registered 64.10 percent polling.