No takers for 901 GP seats

8,687 candidates to be elected unopposed

May 28, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 06:00 am IST - Bengaluru:

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.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.