Mangaluru: Poll literacy clubs planned for apartments

MANGALURU: Officials in Dakshina Kannada are on their toes to increase the poll percentage in all the eight assembly segments in the district, especially in Mangaluru City South, where electoral literacy clubs will be formed soon.
While there were 17,11,848 voters in eight constituencies, the district had registered 74.6% polling in the previous assembly election held in 2018. While Sullia constituency recorded the highest turnout at 83.9%, Mangaluru City South registered the lowest polling in the district, with only 67.4%, in the previous election.

Dakshina Kannada zilla panchayat CEO Kumar, who is also the chairman of the Dakshina Kannada SVEEP committee, said various activities have been planned under the SVEEP programme, to attract more voters to the polling stations this year. “Teams of officials will visit apartments in the city, to encourage voters of Mangaluru City South constituency, and thereby increase the poll percentage. Electoral literacy clubs will be formed in apartments involving its association president and a government official. The club will create awareness among residents in the apartment, on the importance of voting,” he said.
“We have planned to set up 13 model polling stations in the constituency. There will be two polling booths in each constituency, which will be set up under the theme of Yakshagana and kambala. Similarly, five polling booths will be designed under the Sakhi booth concept, which will be managed exclusively by women officials. Further, booths with other themes like Blue Waves, Go Green, and heritage themes will also be set up to attract voters,” he said, adding that officials will start carrying out door-to-door visits to apartments in the city soon.
While there are 17,58,647 voters in this year’s electoral roll in Dakshina Kannada, Mangaluru City South is the second largest constituency in the district in terms of number of voters. Mangaluru City North has 2,46,350 voters, and Mangaluru City South has 2,42,407 voters this year.