2 DK candidates elected unopposed

93 contestants in fray for 23 Council seats

 
Poojary and Shetty were the only candidates left in fray from the constituency following four independents withdrawing their nominations on the last day for withdrawal of papers on Friday. Dakshina Kannada local authorities constituency sends two candidates to the Upper House. With no contest on the cards, Poojary and Shetty were declared elected unopposed.

Elections will be held for the remaining 23 seats on December 18. In all, as many as 93 candidates are in fray for the 23 seats, most of which will witness a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress or the BJP and the JD(S). As many as 21 BJP candidates, 16 Congress, eight JD(S), besides 44 independents, and one candidate each from JD(U) and Vatal Paksha are contesting.

The Congress and the BJP leaders seems to have succeeded in their efforts to convince rebels to withdraw their candidature. Three BJP rebels Suja Kushalappa, C P Gopal and G L Nagaraj, who had filed their candidature from Kodagu withdrew their nominations.

71 withdrew papers

While the Congress managed to convince its rebel candidate from Hassan Shivanagowda to withdraw from the contest, another rebel Thippanna Kamakannuru has decided to fight the polls from Gulbarga. As many as 71 independents withdrew their papers on Friday.

The Congress and JD(S) have entered into a pre-poll alliance for the polls, yet, candidates from both the parties are in fray in Bangalore rural and Chitradurga. As a part of its strategy, the BJP had not fielded its second candidate in Dakshina Kannada.
With Congress too deciding against fielding its second candidate, the first candidate from both parties were elected unopposed. Bijapur, Belgaum, Dharwad, Dakshina Kannada and Mysore constituency has two seats each.

The BJP’s second candidates in Mysore and Belgaum  - C Ramesh and Vasanth Dalwai respectively - also withdrew their candidature on Friday following directions from the party leadership. BJP took the decision to ensure that the first preferential vote is not divided.

Speaking to reporters in Bangalore, State Joint Chief Electoral Officer B V Kulkarni said the ballot papers will have only names but no party symbols. The electorate will have to mark their preferential votes in the ballot paper.