Vijayapura: The big day has finally arrived as the counting for the dual MLC constituency of local bodies will start at Darbar High School of the City on Tuesday December 14.
The fate of the seven candidates including five independent and two party candidates is at stake. It may be noted that the election which was held on Friday December 10 recorded 99.87% in Bijapur District where 1849 male and 2082 female voters exercised their franchise. The total voters were 3931 in the District.
The main fight is believed to be between Sunilgouda Patil of the Congress and P. H. Pujar of the BJP. Among the independent candidates, Mallikarjuna Loni is the strongest contender in the polls. While Sunilgouda Patil is testing his luck for the second time as he is the sitting MLC, Pujar is a former MLA who has contested for the MLC polls.
According to sources, leaders of both the parties tried to convince the independent candidates to withdraw their nomination papers for the unopposed victory of the party candidates. However independent candidates did not agree, which made the election inevitable.
The Congress and the BJP candidates have made every effort for the victory of their respective candidates. Loni had even accused some leaders of political parties of threatening him to withdraw the candidature.
A total of 1233 polling staff has been deployed while 30% of the staff has been kept on reserve for deploying them only during emergencies. A total of 411 polling booths were set up, of them 208 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. For security during polling, 811 police staff in Vijayapura and 307 in Bagalkot had been deployed.
Meanwhile arrangements have been made at the counting centre for the smoother counting process.
Section 144 has been imposed around 100 meters of the counting centre. The District Administration has banned all sorts of victory celebrations after the end of counting.
