Vijayapura: Friday December 10 is going to be a big day for the MLC candidates of Vijayapura and Bagalkot Districts as their fate is going to get sealed in the ballot boxes as the election will be held. Though some five independent candidates are also contesting in the election, the main fight would be between the Congress and BJP as both the parties have fielded one candidate each for the dual seat local body constituency.
The Congress has given ticket again to the sitting MLC Sunilgouda Patil, brother of MLA M. B. Patil, while the BJP has fielded former MLA P. H. Pujar. The Congress was initially in a fix over the selection of the candidate as another sitting MLC and Leader of the Opposition in the Council S. R. Patil was also a contender. But since the party wanted to field only one candidate for the easy victory, the party was unable to decide who should be their official candidate. However, the party finally chose Sunilgouda Patil over S. R. Patil just a day before the last date for filing of nomination papers.
Sources said that S. R. Patil is unhappy with the decision. However, the party leaders claim that he has kept his dissidence aside and has decided to campaign for Sunilgouda. Leaders such as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President D. K. Shivakumar has assured that the party will ensure a suitable post to S. R. Patil since he is a veteran Congress leader.
Amid this, the District Administration has made elaborate arrangements for the smooth polling on Friday.
Deputy Commissioner P. Sunil Kumar said that a total of 411 polling booths have been set up, and out of them 208 are in Vijayapura and 203 in Bagalkote District.
Some 38 sector officials, 22 flying squad and 22 video surveillance teams have been deployed for the polling duty. He informed that around 988 applications have been received seeking permission for an assistance to undertake voting. The Election Commission has permitted the blind, illiterate, aged or ill people to use an assistant to visit the polling booths for voting.
“We have received some oral complaints that some of the voters despite being literate, have falsely mentioned as illiterate. We are inquiring about the authenticity of the complaint,” he said.
With regard to the voters, he said that both the districts together have 7390 voters, of them, one person is an undertrial and has been lodged in jail, and thus has been allowed to cast a postal ballot.
A total of 80 hyper-sensitive and 156 sensitive booths have been identified in both districts. A total of 1233 polling staff has been deployed, while 30% have been kept as reserve. For security during polling, 811 police staff in Vijayapura and 307 in Bagalkote have been deployed. Some six complaints of violation of model code of conduct have been received and one has been lodged, he added.
Photo Source: Facebook
