Mangaluru: With the MLC polls turning the heat on in the state, the Udupi -Dakshina Kannada twin district constituency has become the cynosure of all eyes, thanks to the two rebel candidates.
Altogether, eight candidates are in the fray in this constituency. They are S Prakash Shetty (JD(S)), K Prathapchandra Shetty (Congress), Praveenchandra Jain (JD(S)), Kota Srinivas Poojary (BJP), Alphonse Franco (Independent), Ismail Doddamane (Independent), K Jayaprakash Hegde (Independent) and K Harikrishna Bantwal (Independent).
Among these, Prathapchandra Shetty, Kota Srinivas Poojary, Jayaprakash Hegde and Harikrishna Bantwal are touted to be the most popular candidates. It may be recalled that Hegde and Bantwal were recently expelled from the Congress party for contesting against Pratapchandra Shetty alleging that the duo indulged in an ‘anti-party’ activity.
The Udupi-Dakshina Kannada constituency chooses two MLCs.
The BJP, who have fielded only one candidate, is confident of a win. According to party insiders, the BJP voters have been directed to cast one vote while they have two votes each. As voting is secret, the voters can go against the party directive to vote the second candidate. On the other hand, the official Congress candidate as well the rebels, are hopeful that the BJP voters will cast their second vote, which if so, are likely to be shared among them.
The constituency has 6,568 voters with 1,019 from Kundapur taluk, 1,156 from Udupi taluk, 539 from Karkal taluk, 1,204 from Mangaluru taluk, 928 from Bantwal taluk, 704 from Beltangady taluk, 657 from Puttur taluk and 361 from Sullia taluk.
The voting is scheduled to be held on Sunday December 27 from 8 am and 4 pm. The counting of votes will take place on December 30.
