11 candidates to try their luck in Udupi-Chikmagalur

The Udupi and Chikmagalur district administrations have geared up for the smooth conduct of forthcoming parliamentary polls to be held for the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituency on April 17.

There are total number of 13,86,515 voters in the constituency. In Udupi district, there are 7,11,533 voters, while in Chikmagalur there are 6,74,982 voters respectively. As many as 9,312 polling officials are on duty, of which 4,806 are deployed in Udupi district and 4,506 are in Chikmagalur.

The mustering was carried out successfully in the constituency. The mustering for Udupi was held at T A Pai English Medium High School, Kunjeebettu, while the mustering for Kundapur  was held at Bhandarkars College in Kundapur, the mustering for Kaup assembly segmenst was held at St. Cecile English Medium PU College in Brahmagiri. 

Udupi, while the mustering for Karkala assembly segment was held at Mini Vidhana Soudha in Karkala respectively. In Chikmagalur, the mustering for Sringeri assembly constituency was held at Mini Vidhana Soudha, Sringeri, Government First Grade College, Koppa and Mini Vidhana Soudha, Narasimharajpura respectively.

The mustering for Mudigere was held at Government Junior College, Mudigere. The mustering for Chikmagalur assembly constituency was held at S T J Women College and the mustering for Tarikere was held at SJM College respectively.

The fate of all 11 candidates contesting the Udupi-Chikmagalur poll fray will be decided on Thursday. The candidates contesting include Jayprakash Hedge (Congress), Shobha Karandlaje (BJP), Dhananjay Kumar (JD(S), Sudheer Kanchan (Independent), Srinivas Poojary (Independent), Manjunath (Independent), M D Mainuddhin Khan (Independent), C J Jagnath (CPI (ML) Red Star, Zakir Hussein (BSP), Gurudev S T (Aam Admi party) and S Vijay Kumar (CPI) respectively.

As the open campaigning ended on Tuesday at 6 pm, all the political parties were actively involved in door-to-door campaigning as the last minute preparations to make an attempt for their fortune which might turn in favor of them.

The liquor supply, accumulation, production, trafficking and distribution is prohibited from April 15, 6 pm to April 17, midnight 12 in the constituency.

In Udupi, in addition to Central Paramilitary Force (CISF) and State Armed Police force (KSRP and Kerala SAP) are deployed for poll duty. The naxal affected booths have been classified as severely and moderately affected booths. 

For severely affected and cluster booths one HC or PC for each booth with one section of CPMF is deployed and for moderately affected booths 1 HC or PC with ½ section of CPMF is deployed for security. 

Apart from this, four special naxal sector mobiles have been deployed, provided with half section of CPMF to provide security in Naxal affected areas. To supervise these sector mobiles 14 sector supervisory mobiles have been deployed  with one Inspector and half section of CPMF. 

Each sector supervisory  mobile will supervise  3-4 sector mobiles. In all 5 constituencies the bundobust arrangement will be supervised by ASP/DySP. Totally 15 checkposts are erected to check the movements of cash and liquor during elections and also to check the movements of suspects. 

Different wireless channels installed to monitor the bundobust arrangement and for quick  communication in case of emergency. One static set is installed in each naxal booth locations.