)
Braving the scorching Sunday sun, candidates were seen engaged in hectic campaigning, one of the chief concentration spots being the crowded Devaraja Market and its vicinity. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too was on his campaign trail in T Narasipur.
After seven independents withdrew of the 22 candidates who had filed nominations, 15 are left in the fray in the Mysore-Kodagu Lok Sabha constituency comprising of eight Assembly segments - six in Mysore district and two in Kodagu district - having 1,677,428 electorate, with men exceeding women by over 12,000 in numbers.
The 15 candidates are: Adagur H Vishwanath (Congress), Justice Chandrasekharaiah (Janata Dal-S), Pratap Simha (BJP), C.Mohan Kumar (Bahujan Samajwadi Party), Thimme Gowda (Sarva Janatha Party), D.S.Nirvanappa (CPI-ML, Redstar), M.V.Padmamma (Aam Admi Party), S.P.Mahadevappa (Janata Dal-U), Rathi Poovaiah (Karunadu Party), Hunsur K.Chandrashekar (Democratic Prajakranthi Party-Secularist), D.Ishwar, Bannur Kumar, M S Praveen, Bhojanna N Somaiah, and N Sampath (Independents).
Of the 1,677,428 voters, men account for 844,767 and women 832,661. Of them, Kodagu's Madikeri constituency has 206,659 and Virarjpet 204,933 voters, a total of 471,592. Rest are in Mysore district, Periyapatna accounting for the least of 166,077 and Chamundeswari the highest of 247,163 voters.
In all, 1,973 polling booths have been set up in the constituency of which 501 are identified as sensitive and 468 hyper-sensitive. Chamundeswari has the highest number with 308, while Chamaraja the lowest of 213.
For the 2,675 polling booths in Mysore district, 14,500 officials and staff have been assigned polling duty. The first stage of training for them was conducted yesterday and the second is scheduled on April 10, Deputy Commissioner C.Shikha, who is also the District Returning Officer, said.
After first stage of checking, 3,000 control units and 3,829 ballot units have been readied for the election in the district. Following completion of the first stage randamisation in presence of the political party representatives, AVMs have been distributed Assembly constituency-wise. Second stage randamisation will be conducted on April 3 in presence of election observers and candidates, she said.
In all, around 448 vehicles including 356 KSRTC buses, 68 mini buses and 26 jeeps will be pressed for election purposes.
For enforcing the model code of conduct, Shikha said a sector officers' team will man 15-20 polling booths, there will be a flying squad for each police station and stationary watch-teams for check-posts. So far, 22 instances of violations of the code have been reported and in 10 cases, first information report have been filed. The latest being the seizure of 21 mobile phones from MLC Madhusudhan's office yesterday. Excise staff have conducted 322 raids and taken 107 cases and arrested 50 people.
While Mysore will witness a fight among 15 candidates, neighbouring Chamarajanagar has 14 and Mandya 16 candidates in fray. Chief contenders in Chamarajanagar are R Dhruvanarayana (Congress), A R Krishnamurthy (BJP) and M Shivanna-Kote (JD-S), while Ramaya (Congress), C S Puttaraju (JD-S) and B Shivalingaiah (BJP) in Mandya.
