• Thousands throng Dasara Exhibition Grounds
• COVID norms go for a toss
• Counting of votes after 6 pm

Mysore/Mysuru: The sprawling Dasara Exhibition Grounds was abuzz this morning with thousands of members of The City Co-operative Bank and supporters of the contestants lining up to cast votes for their candidates in the election to the Board of Directors of the city’s prestigious Co-operative Bank that began at 9 am.

The City Co-operative Bank is located on Sri Harsha Road in the heart of the city and is one  of the oldest Co-operative Banks of the State, having been established in 1910. 

The election is being held to 13 posts of Directors, with seven of them reserved for General Category, two each for BCA (Backward Class-A) category and women and one each for SC and ST candidates. There are a total of 37 candidates in the fray.  The election was supposed to take place in last March itself, but had to be postponed due to COVID crisis.

Today’s election is witnessing a keen contest mainly  between two groups — one led by Bank’s immediate Past President M. Puttaswamy and the other led by N. Dhruvaraj, a former  Director of the Bank.

The contestants in the group led by Puttaswamy are — M. Puttaswamy, popularly known as Bank Puttaswamy, Chidanand Nemichandra, Jayakumar, a former MUDA member, Dinesh M. Venkatalingaiah, R. Nagaraj (M.D. Nagaraj), B.J. Narayanaswamy (Nazarbad), Pushpalatha T.B. Chikkanna, a former City Mayor, Kurubarahalli Prakash, Prasanna N. Lakshman, son of former Deputy Mayor late N. Lakshman and C.S. Raghu, a former Senate Member of University  of  Mysore (UoM).

The contestants in the group led by Dhruvaraj are — N. Dhruvaraj, a former Corporator and also a former Director of the Bank, N. Prakash, V. Madhu, M.N. Swaroop, Swamy Nayaka, a retired Officer of New India Assurance Company, L. Suvarna and K. Somu.

About 21,275 out of the total 22,000 members of the Bank were eligible to cast their votes. All the voters were required to bring their Membership Card, Voter Slip and Bank Pass Book.

As per COVID-19 norms, all the voters were asked to compulsorily undergo thermal screening, wear face mask, use hand sanitisers kept at the entrance and maintain physical distancing. 

But the voters and supporters of the contestants seemed to give a go by to the norms, with many of them not wearing mask and physical distancing going for a toss, despite the presence of a large posse of Policemen who were deployed for security and regular announcements made through speakers, asking the crowd to strictly follow COVID-19 protocols.

The authorities had set up 43 polling booths inside the Dasara Exhibition Grounds, with each booth having about 500 voters.

The supporters of all candidates, who had gathered in thousands near the venue, stood along almost all roads leading to the venue holding placards and pamphlets that carried the symbols of candidates, making a last minute appeal to the voters to cast their ballots in favour of their candidates.

There was separate entry and exit gate for the voters, who were allowed in only on producing their ID card. Overall, the scenario at Dasara Exhibition Grounds resembled much as an election to the Legislative Assembly or Parliament, going by the crowd that had gathered at the venue.

The polling took place to elect the new Board of Directors for the 2020-25 for a five year period.

Although polling began on a moderate note in the morning, it picked up momentum as hours passed by.

The polling concluded at 4 pm and the counting of votes will be taken up at 6 pm. The results are expected to be announced late midnight today. Assistant Registrar of Co-operative Societies K. Harish Kumar was the Returning Officer.