Mustering held at all five taluk centres this morning

Mysuru: Five taluks of the district — Periyapatna, Hunsur, K.R. Nagar, H.D. Kote and Saragur — will go for the Gram Panchayat (GP) polls in the first phase of polling tomorrow (Dec.22). 

The elections are apolitical and candidates are barred from using party symbols.

There are a total of 148 GPs having 2,303 seats collectively in these five taluks. However, voting will take place only for 2,174 seats, as members to 123 seats have been elected unanimously, while no voting will take place for six seats as no nominations were received. A total of 7,22,019 voters are eligible to cast their ballots in tomorrow’s election.

The 148 GPs going to the polls tomorrow, include 41 in Hunsur taluk, 34 in K.R. Nagar, 34 in Periyapatna, 26 in H.D.Kote and 13 in Saragur taluk.

In Hunsur, 1,593 candidates are contesting for 555 member seats in 41 GPs, while 1,495 candidates are contesting for 527 member seats in 34 GPs of K.R. Nagar, 1,408 candidates for 521 member seats in 34 GPs of Periyapatna, 1,106 candidates for 366 member seats in 26 GPs of H.D.Kote and 583 candidates for 185 member seats in 13 GPs of Saragur, with the total number of candidates being 6,185.

The voting will take place through ballot papers and the polling staff have been instructed to apply indelible ink on the voter’s left thumb. The voters are required to bring their voter ID card or any other ID card that has their photo for casting vote.

As a COVID-19 protocol measure, all the voters and poll staff and Police on poll duty  are required to undergo compulsory thermal screening, maintain physical distance and wear face masks. The polling staff have also been told to wear gloves as a safety measure.

The polling will take place in a total of 974 booths. While Hunsur has the highest number of polling booths (293), Saragur has the lowest (98), among the five taluks. The voting will be held from 7 am to 5 pm.

With the polls taking place tomorrow, mustering was held at all the five taluk centres this morning. The District Administration had arranged 176 buses, 12 mini-buses and seven smaller vehicles to ferry poll staff to their assigned polling booths. 

In order to maintain law and order and also to ensure free and fair polling, the District Administration has banned sale, storage, distribution or transportation of liquor in the limits of all the five taluks from 5 pm today till tomorrow evening.

The polling for GPs in the three other taluks of the district — Mysuru, T. Narasipur and Nanjangud — will take place in the second phase of polling on Dec. 27.

There are collectively 102 GPs in the three taluks, including 23 in Mysuru, 43 in Nanjangud and 36 in T. Narasipur taluks. The polling will take place only for 1,833 out of the 1,929 member seats of the 102 GPs, as members were unanimously elected for 82 seats while 14 seats will not go to the polls as they have not received any nominations.

The counting of votes of both the phases of elections will be taken up on Dec.30.