Uttara Kannada gears up for Panchayat election

Preparations have started for the Panchayat elections.
In the Coastal districts of Uttara Kannada, Udupi, and Dakshina Kannada 12 Taluks will go for election in the first phase and 14 in the second phase. Though the election is not fought directly on political party platforms, it still has a lot of political importance as the candidates here are ‘backed,’ by political parties.
The Canara Post will run a series ‘Canara Panchayat Punch,’ giving you detailed statistics, political analysis, strategies of the political parties, and campaign trail.

Karwar, Dec 06, 2020: Conducting an election in Uttara Kannada is not an easy task. The district with about 75 percent of forest cover has 12 taluks. People have to walk through the forest to reach their polling boots. Many booths do not have proper network connectivity. This is the first Panchayat election after the Dandeli taluk was carved out.

The five coastal Taluks of Karwar, Ankola, Kumta, Honnavar, Bhatkal will have the election in the first phase and seven taluks- Sirsi, Siddapur, Yellapur, Mundgod, Haliyal, Dandeli, Joida in the second phase.

Voters:
The district has 8.65,329 voters of which 4,38,334 are men, 4,26,991 are men, and 4 others.
While Honnavar Taluk has the highest number of voters (1,24,956), Dandeli has the least (10,021).

Booths:
Of the 1,394 booths in the district 1,170 are regular booths and 224 auxiliary booths.
Here too Honnavar tops with 201 booths. Dandeli has the lowest (17) booths.

Gram Panchayats and Members:
The total number of Gram Panchayats in the district is 231 and the total number of seats is 2,721. While Sirsi has the highest number of Panchayats (32), Dandeli has only 4 Panchayats.
Though Sirsi has the highest number of Panchayats, when it comes to seats, Honnavar has the highest (382). Dandeli has only 37 seats.

Manki Panchayat:
Manki was the biggest Panchayat in Honnavar Taluk. In 2015 it was divided into four Panchayats. About four days ago the government has decided to upgrade it to Urban Local Body.