Udupi : The polling for Udupi-Chikmagalur parliamentary constituency comprises of eight assembly segments including Udupi, Karkala, Kundapur and Kaup in Udupi district and Sringeri, Mudigere, Chikmagalur and Tarikere in Chikmagalur district on April 17, Thursday at 7 am.

A total of 7,11,533 voters are there in Udupi district, 6,74,982 voters in Chikmagalur.

The district administration has deployed as many as 9,312 polling officials on duty, out of which 4,806 in Udupi district and 4,506 in Chikmagalur.

The people of the constituency will decide the fate of 11 candidates including Shobha Karandlaje of BJP, Jayaprakash Hegde of Congress, Dhananjaya Kumar of JD(S), Gurudev S H of Aam Aadmi Party, Zakir Hussain of BSP, S Vijaykumar of CPI and Comrade C J Jagannath of CPI(M), while M D Mainuddin Khan alias Asfiya, Manjunatha G, Srinivas Poojary and Sudheer Kanchan are Independent candidates.

The Union Minister Oscar Fernandes and his wife cast their vote at Vivekananda Higher Primary School, while Udupi Bishop Dr. Gerald Isaac Lobo exercised their franchise at TA Pai Modern School.

Udupi District Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake also cast their vote along with his wife and children voted at the Government Girls’ High School. Dr Gerald Isaac Lobo Bishop of Udupi diocese casted his vote at T A Pai modern School Kadbettu, while Shri Vishwesha Theertha Swamiji of Pejawar Math voted at South School.

Around 372 police personnel have been deployed in the district including one SP, one additional SP, 5 DySPs, 14CPIs, 82 PSI/ASIs, 834 HCs/AHC, 365 home guards have been deployed on duty. About five companies of DAR and Six CPMF and KSRP platoons have been also deputed.

Apart from it, 4 special naxal sector mobiles have been deployed.