Polling gets underway in Udupi-Chikmagalur; Missing names in poll list spark protest

Udupi/ Chikmagalur, March 18: Voting for the by-poll in Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituency began amid tight security on Sunday morning.

Fourteen candidates including independents are in the fray vying for votes from 12,53,589 voters. Out of the 1,633 polling stations, 231 have been declared hyper-sensitive, 788 sensitive, while 77 booths are in naxal-hit areas.

AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandies casted his vote in Vivekananda school Ajjarkad. BJP candidate Sunil Kumar and Congress candidate Jayaprakash Hegde casted their votes in Prevaje Aided School and Korgi School respectively.

Missing names

Migrated labourers of Pragathi Nagara in Allevoor village protested near Nehru high school Alevoor for not finding their vote in the voter list. Namma bhoomi, an NGO is backing the protesters. Official source: at 10 am 9percent polling

This is the second bypoll being held in Karnataka after D V Sadananda Gowda assumed office as Chief Minister. The by-poll was necessitated after Gowda vacated the seat following his election to the assembly recently.

Arch Rivals

Although it is considered a triangular contest among the Congress, BJP and JD(S), it is a fact that the actual fight is between BJP and Congress, the arch rivals in the constituency.

Party leaders and candidates made last-minute efforts to woo the voters through door-to-door campaigning on Saturday. Congress candidate Jayaprakash Hegde visited temples in Kapu and other places as part of the campaigning.

On Saturday polling officials and police personnel had assembled in the respective de-mustering centers and were dispatched with the polling and security materials to the assigned polling stations. Micro-observers had reached the polling station limits that come under their jurisdiction.

The de-mustering centre for the Udupi and Kapu Assembly segments was set up at the St Cecily's High School. Kota Degree College and taluk office were the de-mustering centers for the Kundapur and Karkala Assembly segments respectively.

The taluk offices in Sringeri and N R Pura were the de-mustering centers for the respective taluks. The pre-university college in Mudigere, T M School in Chikmagalur and S J N College in Tarikere were the de-mustering centers in the respective taluks.

Security has been beefed up in Udupi and Chikmagalur districts. Chikmagalur Superintendent of Police Shiv Kumar said Central paramilitary forces (CRPF)?had been deployed in naxal-hit areas of the district.

Around 4,000 police personnel - including five companies of BSF and CISF and 10 platoons of KSRP - are working round-the-clock to ensure smooth conduct of the bypoll, he added.

Udupi SP Dr Boralingaiah M B said security had been tightened in naxal-hit areas in Udupi district.

Police use SIMPLEE-K

Meanwhile, the Western Range Police are using mobile phone network for speedy dissemination of information among policemen posted at various polling booths in Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency.

Called ‘SIMPLEE-K' (Smart Information Messenger For Public and Law Enforcement Engagement, Karnataka), this application will be used to pass on information to all personnel involved in the election duty. “We were looking for an effective medium to reach out to the polling personnel. We found this to be a good medium,” Inspector General of Police (Western Range) Pratap Reddy told presspersons on Saturday.

Developed by Hyderabad based Zestwings IT Services for the police, this software has been programmed to receive messages from around 2,200-odd pre-registered users to a pre-fixed number '9901199011' on poll day.

These include 1,633 presiding officers in as many booth set up for the polls, and around 416 sector and supervisory officers with SMS containing details such as situation in polling booths and polling data at pre-fixed intervals.

In case, where there is no cell phone network coverage in any particular given area, sector police officers have to collect polling data in booths under their jurisdiction and SMS it to the above number as and when they reach network coverage area. SMS sent to above number is monitored by team of policemen at the control room of Inspector-General of Police (Western Range) and forwarded to officials concerned for necessary follow up/information.

Noting that this software has been developed for purpose of by-elections, Mr Reddy, said that software developed can send out simultaneous SMS to 5,424 police personnel working in 90 police stations of Western Range, including based on their ranks. "We can send out 5,000-odd SMS in a matter of 10 seconds," he said adding this was the easiest means to communicate in modern times where all carried a cell phone with them.

Clarifying that the above number is a stop gap arrangement for poll purpose only, Mr Reddy said it is up to state police top brass to take a call on scaling it up with improvisations as required,for entire state police.

"We have showcased this technology to head of police force," IGP said adding the capability in terms of rolling out citizen centric services with this is immense. We can migrate to national number planning once the technology is proven, he added.