Hectic campaigning on for panchayat polls

Rural Karnataka is witnessing hectic campaign as grass-root elections take 2.67 crore voters to the polling booths in 176 taluk panchayats and 30 zilla panchayats. Elections are scheduled in two phases - December 26 and 31. With 50 per cent reservation, as many 2,557 seats are reserved for women. Of the 32,382 booths to be set up across the State, 6,974 are sensitive and 5,143 hyper-sensitive.

The first phase covers 15 districts followed by another 15 districts in the second phase. Fifteen districts going for polls on December 26 are Bangalore Rural and Urban, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Ramanagara, Shimoga, Tumkur, Bidar, Bellary, Gulbarga, Yadagiri, Koppal and Raichur. The remaining 15 districts Chickmagalur, Mandya, Dakshina Kannada, Hassan, Kodagu, Chamarajanagar, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Belgaum, Bijapur, Gadag, Dharwad, Bagalkot, Haveri and Mysore will go for polls in the second phase. The State Election Commission is using electronic voting machines at the panchayat level polls.

The process of filing of nomination papers have been completed in the 15 districts going for election in the first phase, while it is progressing in the remaining 15 districts.

Consequently, all the 30 districts are witnessing major political activity, with political parties engaged in the battle of winning over voters. The taluk and zilla panchayat elections have turned crucial for all the three major political parties, in particular the BJP and its Chief Minister B.S.Yeddyurappa, who is facing one crisis or the other over the last two and half years, and for the Congress, which is tasting testing time and the Janata Dal (S), which is spearheading aggressive campaign against Yeddyurappa and his Cabinet members, like K. Subramanya Naidu, a former Minister.

Mysore district will witness polls for 171 seats of seven taluk panchayats and 46 seats of the zilla panchayat on December 31. Of the 1,567 polling booths, 508 are identified as sensitive and 321 hyper-sensitive. According to officials, about 8,605 polling officers will be deputed for the election duty. Candidates for taluk panchayats can incur election expenditure up to the ceiling of Rs 50,000 and those contesting zilla panchayats up to Rs 1 lakh, said Harsh Gupta District Returning Officer and Deputy Commissioner. December 20 is the last date for filing nominations. Polling will take place from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on December 31. Counting of votes will be on January 4.