Mangaluru : The Dakshina Kannada Sveep Committee organised an 18-km marathon in the city on Sunday to create awareness that Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency will be electing its MP on April 18 and those aged above 18 should exercise their franchise in the upcoming election.

The marathon was attended by Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil, IGP (Western range) Arun Chakravarthy, Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil, SP Lakshmi Prasad, and Sveep Committee Chairman and Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer R Selvamani who appealed to the people to exercise their franchise for the success of the democracy.

The officials, students, men and women took part of the marathon.

The marathon was held in four categories– Above 16 years-Boys; Above 16 years-Girls, Below 16 years-Boys and Below 16 years-Girls.

In the Above 16 years Boys category, Lakshman from Bengaluru won the first place while K Hanumesh of Alva’s College won second place, Basavaraj Godi of Alva’s College third place, Prashanth Kumar of Alva’s college fourth and Sachin of Mangaluru fifth palce.

In the Above 16 years Girls category, all the top five positions were won by Alva’s College students. They are Chaitra Devadiga-First place, Priya D-second, Priyanka H D-third, Deeksha B-fourth and Chaitra P-fifth.

In the Below 16 years Boys category, Ajuman of Government High School-Badaga Ekkar won first place while Alva’s College’s Dharmappa B and Dasharath won second and third prizes respectively.

In the Below 16 years Girls category, the top three positions were won by students of Alva’s College—Chaitra N C-First, Vindhya N-second and Pranamya M-third.

The 18-km marathon which was flagged off at Mangala Stadium passed through Mannagudda-New Chitra-Car Street-Sharavu Temple-K S Rao Road-Navbharath Circle-PVS Circle-Selma Arcade-Kadri Temple Road-Bejai-KSRTC-Lalbagh Circle-Panchami Complex-Kapikad-Daddalakadu-Urwa Store-Ashok Nagara-Urwa Market and Ladyhill before ending at Mangala Stadium.

The 6-km marathon flagged off at Mangala stadium passed through Mannagudda Road-New Chitra-Carstreet-Mangaluru Central Market-Hampankatte-PVS Circle-Ballalbagh-Lalbagh and Divyadeepa Towers before ending at Mangala Stadium.

A walkathon was also organised for the senior citizens to create awareness on voting.

The Sveep Committee organised a flash mob at City Centre Mall in Mangaluru, to create awareness on voting. The students of Srinivas Physiotherapy College were part of the flash mob.

Appealing to the voters to exercise franchise, Zilla Panchayat CEO Selvamani said that voting is the right of all the individuals who are above 18 years.

The marathon organised by the Sveep committee had a guest from Chikkamagaluru, who has been carrying out Cycle Jatha from Chikkamagaluru to Bengaluru, to spread the message on 100% voting.

Umapathi Mudaliar reached Mangaluru as a part of his jatha on way to Bengaluru and was also a part of marathon.