Voting peaceful in coast; good voter turnout seen

Mangaluru: The literate coast on Saturday demonstrated that its heart is in the right place when it comes to electoral politics, witnessing good voter turnout in the three coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada (DK), Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts.
Friday night rains ensured a salubrious weather, which saw an estimated 74.5% of the 41 lakh electorate in these three districts exercise their franchise on Saturday. This is about the same like what the coastal districts polled in 2013 at 74.76%.

While Dakshina Kannada witnessed 77.63% polling, Udupi saw 75% of the electorate exercise their franchise. Uttara Kannada saw 71% polling.

Barring two unfortunate incidents of Anni Achari, 70 and Harish, 40, passing away due to heart attacks near Andinje polling booth of Belthangady taluk and Kulalu Talengala, Bantwal taluk, respectively, the polling was peaceful and uneventful under the watchful eye of security personnel placed at strategic points by the district administration.

There were reports of delayed polling at some booths in all the three districts due to EVM malfunction. Right from the start of the day, there were serpentine queues at almost all the polling booths in the coastal districts, and by 1 pm, had recorded above 45% polling, with Dakshina Kannada topping at 47%.

While Puttur assembly constituency recorded the highest poll percentage of 51% at 1 pm, of the eight constituencies in DK, the urban constituency of Mangaluru City South recorded lowest polling at 39%.

Polling in the rest of the assembly constituencies were as follows: Mangaluru North 48%, Belthangady 52%, Moodbidri 43%, Ullal 47%, Bantwal 53% and Sullia at 43%. In In Udupi district, the polling percentage was at 45% at 1 pm.

The key constituency of Bantwal also saw a very high polling percentage, where a pitched battle is going on between district in-charge minister B Ramanath Rai against Rajesh Naik of the BJP—but is touted as a duel between Rai and RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat.

In Udupi district, the polling percentage was high at 50.66% overall, with the key Udupi assembly constituency witnessing a turnout of 50.96%, where minister Pramod Madhwaraj is in a pitched battle with the BJP’s Raghupathi Bhat.

Shiroor Seer Laxmivara Theertha Seer, who filed his nomination as an independent, withdrew his nomination, and is supporting the BJP. While Kaup recorded 49.44% polling, Karkala saw a good turnout with 52.13%, Baindoor at 50.62% and Kundapur recorded 49.78% polling. By afternoon, the polling tapered off and picked up moderately from 5 pm onwards till the end of the polling. The Naxal-affected areas in DK and Udupi also saw good voting, which tapered off in the afternoon, but picked up in the evening like in other centres. Though the polling was conducted smoothly across Udupi district, some interior booths in Karkala, Kaup and Kundapur faced a problem due to power fluctuations.

There were also reportedly problems with EVMs at Kukkikatte, due to which the polling process started almost two hours late.

The election saw a majority of the 2.2% per cent of the first-time and millennial voters exercising their franchise, and proudly exhibiting their index finger with indelible ink.