Council bypolls evoke enthusiastic response

Byelections to the Legislative Council from three local bodies’ constituencies evoked an enthusiastic response from elected representatives on Thursday.

The polling percentage to elect members from three local authorities constituencies of Dharwad, Mysore and Chitradurga was close to 99 per cent, according to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anil Kumar Jha.

As many as 19,259 members of gram panchayats, taluk panchayats, zilla panchayats, town panchayats, town municipal councils, city municipal councils, besides MLAs and MPs from the region form the electoral college. In total, the number of votes cast was 19,414 across the three constituencies.

The voting was through a secret paper ballot system, which is the norm for the Council elections, wherein members are asked to mark their top three preferences.

The Dharwad constituency, comprising panchayats and urban local bodies in the Dharwad, Gadag, and Haveri districts and the Hubli-Dharwad municipal corporation, recorded a turnout of 99.59 per cent.

Dharwad Deputy Commissioner Sameer Shukla said the election was necessitated by the resignation of Shivaraj Sajjanar, who was elected on a BJP ticket and joined the KJP to contest the Assembly elections.

The BJP has fielded Pradeep Shettar, younger brother of former chief minister Jagadeesh Shettar, while the Congress has fielded Nagaraj Chabbi. Basavaraj Hadi has contested as an Independent. Of the total 7,316 voters, 7,286 exercised their franchise. The polling which was dull in the morning, picked up later. The counting of votes will be on Monday at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad.

The bypoll for the Chitradurga local authorities constituency passed off peacefully with 99.66 per cent polling. Of the total 5,088 voters in the constituency, 5,072 exercised their franchise.

Hosadurga taluk in Chitradurga district recorded 100 per cent voting. The ruling Congress has fielded its district Congress chief M A Sethuram. The BJP has fielded political greenhorn K S Naveen, while G Raghu Achar, an outsider to Chitradurga, contested as an independent.

Byelections to the Council from the Mysore-Chamarajanagar local bodies’ constituency recorded 98.55 per cent polling.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who represents the Varuna Assembly constituency in the district, failed to turn up to exercise his franchise. R Dharmasena, president of the Mysore District Congress (Rural) Committee, is the Congress nominee, while U S Shekar is the KJP candidate. Ayub Khan is the only independent.

 In Mysore district, the turnout was recorded at 98.05 per cent and in Chamarajanagar it was 98.94 per cent.

In Lok Sabha byelections, the BJP and KJP had not fielded candidates, in the Council polls, the JD(S) had not fielded candidates. The KJP has fielded its candidate from Mysore, while the BJP nominees contested in Dharwad and Chitradurga.

The Congress has fielded candidates for all the three seats. The BJP supported the KJP candidate in Mysore and it was vice versa in Chitradurga.