420 candidates vie for 82 seats in Hubballi-Dharwad

DHARWAD: Stage has been set for free and fair polling with adherence to Covid protocol at the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation on Friday.
The administration has set up 842 polling booths to elect candidates from 82 wards. As many as 8,17,458 persons including 4,06,280 men, 4,11,092 women and 86 others are eligible to vote in the corporation limits.A total of 420 candidates, including 122 independents, are vying for 82 seats in the civic body.
The polling will be conducted from 7am to 6pm on Friday and re-polling, if necessary, will be on September 5. The votes will be counted at University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad on September 6.
As many as 3,704 officials, including 336 reserved staff, have been deployed as poll officials. These officials collected the election materials at the mustering centers Basel Mission English Medium School, Polytechnic College and Lamington High School in Hubballi on Thursday and fanned out to their respective polling stations.
Returning officer and deputy commissioner Nitesh Patil said 842 EVMs will be used in 82 wards and additional 82 EVMs have been kept as reserve. There is provision for NOTA in the EVM this time.
Special arrangements have been made to Covid positive persons to vote. They will be allowed to vote during the last hour of voting.
Security has been beefed up in the twin cities and the police have identified 108 polling stations as vulnerable.