Four candidates finalised for byelection to Legislative Council from Dakshina Kannada Local Authorities’ Constituency

The stage is all set for the October 21 byelection to Karnataka Legislative Council from Dakshina Kannada Local Authorities’ Constituency with four candidates remaining in the fray.

Muhammed Riyaz who had filed nomination as an Independent candidate withdrew his nomination on the last day for withdrawal of nominations, on Monday, October 7.

Those who are in the fray are Kishore B.R. of BJP, Raju Poojary of Congress, Anwar Sadath S. of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and Dinakar Ullal, an Independent candidate.

Seat vacated by Poojary

The byelection will be held to the seat vacated by BJP’s Kota Srinivas Poojary who has been elected as the Lok Sabha member from Udupi-Chikkamagaluru constituency. The vacancy was created on June 15, 2024, following Mr. Poojary’s resignation to the Council. His term in the Council was till January 5, 2028.

In the last election held to the Council from the same constituency in December 2021, Mr. Poojary and Manjunath Bhandary from the Congress were elected as it is a dual member constituency.

Now, the voting in the byelection will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The counting will be done on October 24. Model code of conduct will be in force till October 28.

Voters in by-election

According to the Election Commission, there are 6,037 voters in the constituency. Of them, 3,551 are in Dakshina Kannada and 2,486 voters are in Udupi district.

The constituency has 392 polling stations, (which are local bodies) including 234 in Dakshina Kannada and 158 in Udupi district.

The local bodies comprise gram panchayats, Mangaluru City Corporation, city municipal councils, town municipal councils and town panchayats.

The MLAs, Members of Parliament and MLCs under the constituency enjoy the voting rights.

Last election

There were three candidates in the fray in the regular election held in December 2021. In addition, Mr. Poojary and Mr. Manjunath the SDPI had fielded Shafi Bellare.

While Mr. Poojary secured 3,672 votes, Mr. Bhandari polled 2,079 votes, and Mr. Bellare 204 votes. As many as 56 votes were declared invalid. In all, 6,011 votes were polled.