Mangalore, May 5: About 7,500 candidates are fighting for the 3,118 seats available in the 200 Gram Panchayats of DK. The district has already seen the unanimous selection of 89 candidates, leaving 3,208 available seats.
Dakshina Kannada district has 203 Gram Panchayats. Three of these GPs—Padu in Bantwal, and Arambodi and Venur in Belthangady—will not be conducting elections because their terms have not yet been completed.
Mangalore has 49 GPs with 938 seats; and 27 members have been unanimously selected. Currently, 2,306 candidates are contesting the GP elections.
The number of polling booths in the district is 1,115, of which 252 have been identified as sensitive and 176 have been identified as hypersensitive booths. The government has declared 12 villages—Laila, Navoor, Mithabagilu, Shirlalau, Kuthlur, Sulkeri Mogru, Nada, Malanthike, Savanalu, Naravi, and Sulkeri—in the district to be Naxal infested. Owing to these circumstances, 32 polling booths will receive additional security.