Section 144 till May 16 midnight: DC Shashikant Senthil
Mangaluru: Deputy Commissioner Shashikant Senthil has said that due to the Dakshina Kannada district being a communally sensitive place, Section 144 will be in force in the district during counting from 14 May midnight to 12 am of 16 May.
Addressing a press conference, he thanked voters and staff for assisting in peaceful voting. While the prohibition orders will be in force; gathering illegally, celebrating victory, taking out processions in the district including at counting center would wholly be prohibited.
Any misconduct around the counting center will not be entertained. The public must co-operate with the district administration in this regard. Alcohol selling will be prohibited from 6 pm of May 14th to noon on May 14th.
Complete results expected within 2 pm
"Counting will begin at 8 am On May 15 at various rooms of Mahatma Gandhi Centenary High School and PU College, Bondel. The counting process will take place in phase vise, and the overall result is expected to be announced within 2 pm," the Deputy Commissioner said.
Initially, postal ballots will be counted. All postal ballots that will be received on May 15th within 8 am will be counted. EVM votes will be counted after 30 minutes from the beginning of the counting process.
Mobile, iPad, Laptop forbidden
"As per the Election Commission's orders, a three-layer security system has been set up within 100 m of the security rooms where EVMs / VV Patts are placed. All the persons entering the counting centers are thoroughly frisked before being allowed. No person is allowed to enter without the valid pass issued by DEO. The outer zone will be a traffic-free area, and parking vehicles within the 100 meters from counting centers are restricted. Electronic devices like mobile phone, iPad, laptop, audio-video devices are restricted," Mr. Senthil informed.
Traffic diversion
Police Commissioner Vipul Kumar said that some diversions have been made to the traffic movement near Bondel MJC education institute in the wake of counting.
“Vehicular movement and parking on both sides of the road are completely prohibited from the Bondel junction to Ishwarakatte junction. Two RAF units, 6 KSRP, 6 CAR and 100 mobile patrols have been deployed in the city,” Kumar said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Wayanad LS bypoll: Priyanka crosses lead achieved by Rahul in 2024 Lok Sabha polls
Wayanad (Kerala) (PTI): Top Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Saturday comfortably cruising towards her maiden electoral win from Wayanad in Kerala, as she surpassed the lead achieved by her brother Rahul Gandhi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls earlier this year with party leaders and ally IUML predicting a big win for her amid the counting trends.
The Congress-led UDF's candidate from this hill constituency, Priyanka, extended her lead by over 3.8 lakh votes after five hours of counting of the ballots in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, according to the Election Commission.
Reacting to the lead achieved by Priyanka, Congress' ally Indian Union Muslim League and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said she would get more votes than her brother Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls in April this year and will win by a record margin.
"An amazing first trend on counting day is the massive early lead for our leader @priyankagandhi ji in Wayanad, Kerala, by-election. People of Wayanad are surely going to record in victory margins today and Priyanka ji will make Parliamentary debut with a grand win," Reddy said in a post on 'X'.
IUML supremo Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal said that going by the trends, Priyanka will get more votes than what Rahul got and the majority she achieves would also be higher than that of her brother.
A similar view was expressed by IUML's national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty.
On the other hand, BJP leader Anil K Antony, earlier in the day, had claimed that though Priyanka has achieved a good lead, her victory margin would be less than what Rahul got in the 2024 and 2019 LS polls in the hill constituency.
According to the latest EC figures, Priyanka had a lead of 3,82,975 with 5,78,526 votes. LDF's Sathyan Mokeri was behind her with 1,95,551 votes and NDA's Navya Haridas was in the third spot with 1,04,947 votes.
Rahul had got 6,47,445 votes and won by a margin of 3,64,422 votes against his nearest rival, CPI's Annie Raja, in the LS polls this year. In 2019, he had got 7,06,367 votes and had won by a margin of 4,31,770 votes.
After winning from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh as well, in this year's polls, Rahul vacated the Wayanad seat, and the party nominated his sister Priyanka, paving the way for her electoral debut.
The bypoll turnout in Wayanad, which has over 14 lakh registered voters, was around 65 per cent, a decline from the close to 74 per cent in the LS polls held in April this year and much lower than the over 80 per cent turnout in the hill constituency in the 2019 general elections.
The counting of votes commenced at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first.
The strong rooms, where the EVMs were kept, were opened more than an hour before counting began.
The bypoll for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat was held on November 13.
Of the 16 candidates who contested, the main contenders are Priyanka, ruling CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri, a political veteran, and BJP-headed NDA's Navya Haridas.
