With the deadline for public campaigning ending on Saturday evening, those contesting from the Karnataka West Teachers Constituency of the Legislative Council and their supporters were engaged in making individual vote appeals and sending voice messages seeking support on Sunday.
Polling is scheduled to be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday.
The Karnataka West Teachers Constituency comprises four districts of Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Gadag and Haveri. In all, there are 17,973 voters, including 10,983 male and 6,900 female voters. Only registered graduate teachers are eligible to vote in the election.
The former Chairman of Legislative Council Basavaraj Horatti is seeking re-election for the eighth time from the constituency as a BJP candidate and his candidature is being challenged by Congress candidate Basavaraj Gurikar, Janata Dal(S) candidate Shrishail Gadadinni and four Independent candidates Karabasappa Madhyanad, Krishnavani Srinivasgouda, Fakirgouda Kallangoudar and Venkangouda Govindgoudar.
Mustering
On Sunday, mustering centres set up in all the four districts witnessed a flurry of activities as the polling staff and officials, police personnel deployed for polling duty and others left for the respective polling stations after collecting the polling paraphernalia.
Equipped with polling material, ballot boxes and papers and other required items, polling personnel boarded buses to their respective polling stations from the mustering centres.
Deputy Commissioners of the four districts, Gurudatta Hegde of Dharwad, Sundaresh Babu of Gadag, Sanjay Shettennavar of Haveri and Mullai Muhilan of Uttara Kannada, reviewed the preparations for Monday’s polling and also visited the mustering centres to monitor the arrangements.
With close to 18,000 votes to bag, all the candidates and their supporters are competing with each other to gain the support of graduate teachers as every vote can make a difference. On Sunday also, individual vote appeals were being sent to voters by the supporters of the candidates.
