No takers for 901 Gram Panchayat seats, gram panchayat election, Karnataka Gram panchayat Poll, Karnataka News, Political News
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- Category: Karnataka Political News
- Last Updated: Friday, 05 June 2015 12:06
No takers for 901 Gram Panchayat seats
8,687 candidates to be elected unopposed
A total of 8,687 candidates are all set to be elected unopposed in the forthcoming gram panchayat elections.
State Election Commissioner P.N. Srinivasachari told presspersons here on Wednesday that 901 seats will remain vacant as no nominations had been filed.
Admitting that residents of several districts, including Kolar, Chamarajanagar, Chikkamagaluru, and North Karnataka, had boycotted the polls, he said it was either because of lack of basic amenities, particularly drinking water, or a demand to upgrade the existing gram panchayats into town panchayats.
“The seats that have been boycotted will go uncontested. We will subsequently conduct polls in these places too,” he said.
The commission has made elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the two-phased polls on May 29 and June 2. “We will begin mustering for the first phase on Thursday and the ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia will be handed over to the designated poll officers on the same day. Polling will be held between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on May 29,” Mr. Srinivasachari said.
On the reported auctioning of seats in some villages, he said this had been reported only in a few gram panchayats. “We had instructed the Deputy Commissioners to conduct a probe. However, when the officers went to those areas, none came forward to give a complaint. We will have to consider these seats as elected unopposed,” he said.
In numbers
The polls in numbers
Total number of contestants – 2,33,493
Members to be elected unopposed – 8,687
Seats left vacant due to non-submission of nominations – 901
Number of polling stations – 37,754
Sensitive polling stations – 8515
Hypersensitive polling stations – 6167
Total voters – 2,78,50,874
Male voters – 1,41,80,139
Women voters – 1,36,70,735
Total polling staff – 188770
Police force deployed for bandobast – 39,891
Additional reserve police force – 582
Home guards – 18,879
Poll timings – 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
src:thehindu.com