Second phase of GP polling peaceful in Dakshina Kannada

The second phase of Gram Panchayat election was held peacefully in Dakshina Kannada district on Sunday. The polling was held for 114 GPs in Belthangady, Puttur, Sullia and Kadaba taluks in the district.

The district recorded an average of 78.69% polling with 78.43% in Belthangady, 78.45% in Puttur, 80.54% in Sullia and 77.61% in Kadaba taluks.

DK district had registered an average of 14.83% polling by 9 pm. It was 15.29% in Belthangady, 15.61% in Puttur, 13.81% in Sullia and 14.03% in Kadaba taluks.

By 11 am, the polling percentage was 33.41 in the district with Belthangady registering 33.59%, Puttur - 34.23%, Sullia - 31.62% and Kadaba - 33.81%. The district had recorded 52.64% polling by 1 pm.

By 3 pm, district registered 65.62% polling. There were 3,421 candidates contesting for 1,541 seats in these gram panchayats. Voters were seen heading to the booths since morning.

MLAs, MLCs vote

Puttur MLA Sanjeeva Matandoor exercised his franchise at Hirebandadi Gram Panchayat limits. While Belthangady MLA Harish Poonja cast his vote at a school in Gardadi in Belthangady taluk. MLC Harish Kumar cast his vote at Permanu School in Belthangady. Sullia MLA S Angara cast his vote at Doddathota booth in Amaramudnoor GP. While MLC Prathapsimha Nayak exercised his franchise while standing in queue along with other voters at SDM School in Ujire.

Brides cast vote

Amid the marriage celebrations, Zuhara and Khairunnisa, daughters of Ibrahim from Mundaje, exercised their franchise at one of the polling booths in the village. Aged and physically challenged were taken near the polling booths in vehicles. As polling booths with more than 1,000 voters were divided into auxiliary booths, there were no long queues in front of the booths.

The candidates and their agents were seen appealing to voters outside the 200-metre radius of the booths. An incident of distributing miniature model of ballot papers came to light when Puttur Assistant Commissioner Yathish Ullal visited a polling booth at Hantyaru.

“Though it is not prohibited, we warned them not to distribute it near the polling station,” said Yathish Ullal.

Age did not come in the way of a 106-year-old Bommi in casting her vote when she was carried to the booth at ward number six of Uppinangady GP in Puttur by her grandson.

Enraged over the pathetic condition of the road from Aletti to Baddadka in Sullia taluk, a banner asking people not to vote for those who are responsible for ‘my condition’ (condition of road) was mounted on the stretch of the road.

The missing names of voters created confusion and chaos at Sri Gopalakrishna High School in Bilinele.

As per the revised voters list, a few voters’ names were shifted to other polling booths in the area. The issue was solved after Kadaba Tahsildar Ananth Shankar visited the spot and convinced the voters.

Only one sanitiser was given for a polling booth in Kadaba. By 11 am, the sanitiser was exahausted.

Two teams of ANF personnel were deployed for security purpose in Maoist-infested areas of Naravi, Kuthloor in Belthangady taluk. Asha workers and health workers were seen checking the body temperature of the voters before allowing them inside the booth for casting their vote.

There were 292 polling booths in 46 gram panchayats in Belthangady, 151 booths in 22 GPs in Puttur, 132 booths in 25 GPs in Sullia and 135 booths in 21 GPs in Kadaba.

There were 1,605 polling officials in Belthangady. The 46 GPs in the taluk were divided into 20 sectors.

Candidate detained

A candidate contesting from a Gram Panchayat in Sullia taluk was detained by the police on the charges of sexually assaulting a minor girl. Following the complaint by the victim’s parents, Bellare police have registered a case. The detained is identified as Narayana Pucchama alias Hukrappa.