A total of 11,877 voters are eligible to cast their vote in the bypolls to the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) from Ward Number 18 scheduled to be held on February 9.
Polling will be held from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. in 11 booths across the ward. Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) will be used to cast votes.
Bypolls to Ward Number 18, which is reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST), had been announced after the High Court annulled the election of BJP candidate Guru Vinayak after a dispute arose over the caste certificate.
The bypolls will witness a triangular contest with the BJP fielding B.V. Ravindra against the Congress party’s Ravindra Kumar and JD(S) candidate Swamy.
Though BJP leader Shivaprakash too had filed his nomination papers as a rebel candidate, the party leaders, who are keen to retain the ward, managed to convince him to withdraw from the fray. Leaders of all the three main parties slugged it out in the run-up to the polling day by campaigning for their respective candidates.
With the ward falling in the geographic jurisdiction of Chamaraja Assembly segment, MLA L. Nagendra, who represents the constituency, sought votes for Mr. Ravindra.
Along with the party’s corporators and other leaders, he went on a door-to-door campaign.
The Congress leaders including former Deputy Mayor Pushpavalli too undertook a door-to-door campaign, seeking votes for their candidate.
Former Mayor R. Lingappa, JD(S) Mysuru City unit president K.T. Cheluve Gowda and others sought vote for the JD(S) candidate.
Security
Strict security arrangements will be in place for the polling on Sunday.
Returning Officer Shive Gowda told The Hindu that five booths have been categorised as hyper-sensitive.
An assistant sub-inspector of police, a head constable and one constable will provide security for each hyper-sensitive booth while adequate police personnel will also be posted at each normal polling booth. Videographers will also be deployed at each hyper-sensitive booth.
Out of the 11,877 eligible voters, 5,793 are men while 6,084 are women. Counting of votes will be taken up on February 11.
