Gram panchayat members in Udupi district told not to boycott Council byelection

Members of some GPs sent letters that they would boycott the byelection to press the government to keep their villages out from the purview of implementing the recommendations of the Kasturirangan Committee Report on the Western Ghats

With Dakshina Kannada Local Authorities’ Constituency, including Udupi district, all set for the byelections to the Legislative Council on Monday, October 21, the Assistant Election Officer and Additional Deputy Commissioner of Udupi G.S. Mamathadevi has appealed to some gram panchayat members not to boycott the voting process.

Ms. Mamathadevi said in a statement that members of some Gram Panchayats in Udupi district sent letters that they would boycott the byelection to press the government to keep their villages out from the purview of implementing the recommendations of the Kasturirangan Committee Report on the Western Ghats. Since the byelection process is in progress, their demands of the report will be sent to the government once the byelection is over. Hence, the members are requested to participate in the voting process.

It may be mentioned here that Jadkal Mudur Grama Hitarakshana Samiti of Byndoor taluk staged a dharna in front of the Udupi Deputy Commissioner’s office last month urging the government to keep human habitations out of the purview of the report while implementing the recommendations of the high-level working group led by the senior scientist who headed the ISRO.

The samiti, which termed the report as unscientific, said people living in 37 villages of Udupi district will be affected if the recommendations are implemented in toto as the villages fell under the ecologically sensitive area.

Polling officials reach booths

Meanwhile, polling officials left for polling stations with ballot papers and ballot boxes on Sunday. The mustering was done in respective taluk headquarters under the constituency.

Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner and Election Officer M.P. Mullai Muhilan visited the mustering centres and reviewed the preparations.

The polling will be held in 392 polling stations from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The counting will be held at St. Aloysius Pre-University College in Mangaluru on October 24. The byelection process will be over on October 28.

There are four candidates in the fray. They are Kishore B.R. of BJP, Raju Poojary of Congress, Anwar Sadath S. of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), and Dinakar Ullal, Independent candidate.

Three candidates contested in 2021

In the regular election held in the constituency in December 2021, there were three candidates in the fray.

Kota Srinivas Poojary of the BJP and Manjunath Bhandary of the Congress were elected to the Council as it is a dual member constituency.

While Mr. Poojary secured 3,672 votes, Mr. Bhandari polled 2,079, and the third candidate Shafi Bellare of the SDPI secured 204 votes. In all, 6,011 votes were polled. As many as 56 votes were declared invalid.

Now the byelection will be held to the seat vacated by Mr. Poojary, who has been elected as the Lok Sabha member from Udupi-Chikkamagaluru constituency. The vacancy was created on June 15, 2024, following Mr. Poojary’s resignation to the Council. His term in the Council was till January 5, 2028.

Published - October 20, 2024 08:46 pm IST