Gram Panchayat polls largely peaceful in Mysuru region

Except for minor issues, the second phase of gram panchayat elections were largely peaceful in the Mysuru region, comprising, Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar districts, held on Sunday. The first phase was held on December 22 and the counting of votes will be on December 30.

In Mysuru, the polls were held for a total of 102 GPs of three taluks - Mysuru, Nanjangud and T Narasipur - with 721 wards and 1,929 seats. The district recorded 81.17% polling.

In Mandya, elections were held for a total of 230 GPs from four taluks - Pandavapura, Srirangapatna, KR Pet and Nagamangala. While 545 members are unanimously elected, the election was held for 3,249 sets of 3,797. As many as 8,012 candidates were in the fray from four taluks.

Hassan district recorded 83.72% polling. The elections were held for 120 gram panchayats in four taluks-Arasikere, Belur, Alur and Holenarasipur. The elections were scheduled to elect 1,468 members. A total of 178 members were elected unanimously. A total of 4,041 candidates were in the fray.

In Chamarajanagar district, the polls were held for the GP of three taluks - Yelandur, Kollegal and Hanur.

Boycott

The villagers of Padasalanatta village coming under Male Mahadeshwara Hill boycott the polls demanding the government to issue immediate compensation for the family of a deceased, who died in a bid to escape from a wild elephant attack. A man died after falling into a trench on Saturday.

Despite the election officials, forest department authorities visit to the village and the voters denied to vote. As many as 270 voters did not exercise their franchise.

In another case, the voters of Siddaianapura village ward-1 denied casting votes demanding for four votes. However, the officials managed to convince the villagers. In the ward, there are four seats-two general and two SC. While no one filed papers for the general category, 11 candidates filed papers from SC category.

The villagers argued that the election officials had said that each voter has four votes but, now only two votes were allowed. However, Deputy Commissioner M R Ravi managed to convince the voters and the voting commenced at 12.45 pm.

Protest

The voters staged a protest in front of a polling station in Srirangapatna in the Mandya district for denying voting power for a few voters due to mistake in voter list. A few voters’ details were misinterpreted and thus the officials denied voting right for them. More than 50 voters of Maggigepur village were deprived of voting power due to the mistake of the officials. The voters staged protest for more than an hour.

200 names missing

As many as 200 voters deprived of voting power as their names were missing from the voters' list. The names of 200 voters of Agadallu ward coming under Kalleri GP of Belur taluk in Hassan district, were missing.