Mangaluru: Mangaluru is all set to host Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 13, 5 days ahead of the polling day in the Dakshina Kannada Constituency which is scheduled on April 18. A grand stage has been set up at the Nehru Maidan where the Prime Minister will address a public rally.

Ahead of the PM’s visit security has been beefed up in the city and heavy deployment of the security personnel was seen in the city on Friday. High security is in places from where PM Modi’s convoy will pass through.

At Nehru Maidan, six checking and Inspection gates including main entrance is in place to ensure safety of the PM. A 60 foot long and 40 foot wide stage has been prepared from where the Prime Minister will address the public rally. Udupi-Chikmagaluru BJP candidate Shobha Karandlaje, Dakshina Kannada candidate Nalin Kumar Kateel and other BJP leaders will share the stage with PM.

The party said it expects about one and half lakh people to attend the event and accordingly six LED screens have been installed across the venue for the convenience of the people to watch PM Modi speak. People from Udupi, Mangaluru, Kasargod and other parts of the district are expect to attend PM’s address.

Dakshina Kannada District President and MLA Sanjeev Mathandur informed that Jagadish Puttur will sing a patriotic song ahead of the events inauguration. He further informed that no food items or soft and cold drinks were to be distributed at the event as Election Code of Conduct is in place and hence only drinking water was made available at the venue.

Top officials of Special Protection Group (in-charge of PM’s security) arrived in the city on Wednesday and took stock of the security arrangements at the event venue. Local police have also undertaken several security measure to avert any untoward incident during PM’s visit.

“It will be a historic event in the political history of Dakshina Kannada. People from over 1861 election booths will attend the program” BJP Dakshina Kannada Election in-charge Sunil Kumar told reporters.

“The event will begin at 3.pm, party’s state leaders will address the event and PM Modi will reach the venue at 4.15 and address the rally. BJP workers from two constituencies will attend the event. We are expecting to win the election here by at least a margin of two lakh votes” Sunil said.

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Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): The draft voters’ list prepared as part of the SIR of the electoral roll in Kerala was published by the ECI on Tuesday, where over 24 lakh names have been removed.

Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U Kelkar, addressing a press conference, said the draft list has been published on the Election Commission’s website and copies have also been handed over to political parties.

As many as 2,54,42,352 voters have been included in the draft list, while the names of 24,08,503 electors were removed after completion of the enumeration stage of the Special Intensive Revision.

Of the deleted names, 6,49,885 pertain to deceased persons, 6,45,548 voters were found to be untraceable, and 8,16,221 voters were identified as having permanently shifted from their registered addresses.

In addition, 1,36,029 duplicate voters and 1,60,830 voters falling under other categories were identified.

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Before the revision exercise began, there were 2,78,50,855 voters in the electoral rolls in Kerala. The percentage of names removed from the rolls stands at 8.65 per cent.

Kelkar said objections and grievances related to the draft list can be submitted till January 22, and the final electoral roll will be published on February 21.

Kelkar said that as part of the SIR, a voter mapping exercise was also carried out till December 18.

"We were able to complete 93 per cent of the voter mapping by December 18. Most of the unmapped cases were reported from urban and semi-urban areas such as Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam and Ernakulam," he said.

He said that the mapping exercise is still continuing.

After the mapping process is completed, electoral registration officers (EROs) will decide on hearings for non-mapped voters.

"Notices will be issued to voters to be heard. The hearings will be decentralised so as not to cause inconvenience to the public," he said.

He said the notices would contain detailed instructions, including the reasons for the hearing and the documents to be produced, and would be served through booth-level officers.

Responding to queries on the high number of untraceable voters, Kelkar said booth-level officers had visited the addresses three times to serve enumeration forms but were unable to locate the voters.

"We made all efforts to trace the voters as directed by the Election Commission," he said.

Kelkar said those whose names are not included in the draft list will have to submit fresh applications for inclusion in the electoral roll.