Polling commences in Udupi-Chikmagalur; voters queue up outside booths

Polling commences in Udupi-Chikmagalur; voters queue up outside booths

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Apr 17, 2014: Union Minister Oscar Fernandes and his wife and Udupi Bishop  Dr. Gerald Isaac Lobo were among the first to cast their votes in Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency on April 17, Thursday.

 

 

 

 

 

Oscar exercised his franchise at the polling station at  Vivekananda Higher Primary School, while the Bishop voted at the TA Pai Modern School. Udupi District Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake accompanied by his wife and  children voted at the Government Girls’ High School.

The Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency has 13,86,516 voters, of which 6,78,711 are men voters and 7,07,742 female voters.

The constituency is seeing a contest between 11 candidates including Jayaprakash Hegde of Congress, Shobha Karandlaje of BJP, Dhananjaya Kumar of JD(S), Gurudev S H of Aam Aadmi Party, Zakir Hussain of BSP, S Vijaykumar of CPI and  Comrade C J Jagannath of CPI(M). Indepdendent candidates M D Mainuddin Khan alias Asfiya, Manjunatha G, Srinivas Poojary and Sudheer Kanchan are also in the fray.

The administration has ensured elaborate security arrangements for the elections particularly in Naxal affected areas where CISF and KSRP and Keraa SAP personnel have been deputed.