The elections of the apex body of Souharda Co-ops- Karnataka State Souharda Federal Cooperative are scheduled for today and 38 candidates are in the fray for 21 seats.
There are 2808 eligible voters in the elections. Karnataka Slum Development Board Commissioner B Venkatesh (KAS) has been appointed as the returning officer to oversee the election process.
Eight polling booths have been set up at Bangalore, Karnataka. It is reported that out of 21 seats, there will be intense fights on 8 seats. No candidate has filed their papers against the outgoing President Krishna Reddy.
The Karnataka chapter of Sahakar Bharati has fielded their candidates. A source said that many District Central Co-operative Bank Chairmen, representing the apex body from their respective Souharda co-ops, are in the fray.
The candidates toured different Souharda co-ops to woo voters.
The board consists of 21 seats and there are no reserved seats. The board is divided into four regions which include Bangalore (6 seats), Mysore (2 seats), Belgaum (7 seats) and Kalaburgi (6 seats).
There are a total of 5,573 souharda co-ops which are the members of the apex body but 2765 societies had not sent names for participating in the elections or several names were rejected for discrepancies in their forms.
Readers would recall that as on the last date of withdrawal, out of 63 valid nomination papers, 25 candidates withdrew their names.
