Mangaluru (The Hindu): The stage is set for the first elections to the newly created Kaup Town Municipal Council at Kaup in Udupi district on Sunday.

The Kaup TMC was created with the merger of Kaup and its surrounding villages. The total number of voters is 16,491, which includes 8,729 women and 7,762 men. There are 23 wards, of which 11 are sensitive.

The polling will be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The voters will have to bring their Elector’s Photo Identity Cards or any of the 21 other documents to prove their identity to vote at the polling stations.

The indelible ink will be marked on the index finger of the left hand of the voters. Though Electronic Voting Machines are being used for the elections, there is no provision for None of The Above.

The mustering of EVMs took place at the Taluk Office in Udupi on Saturday. The polling officers took the EVMs in designated vehicles to the polling stations allotted to them. As many as 125 officers and personnel have been deployed for polling duty.

A total of 58 candidates are in the fray for the 23 wards in Kaup.

While the Congress and the BJP fielded their candidates in all the 23 constituencies, the Janata Dal (Secular) has put up five candidates and the Social Democratic Party of India four. Three independent candidates too are trying their luck. The Kaup TMC comes under the Kaup Assembly constituency, which is represented by the Urban Development Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake, who is also the Udupi District Incharge Minister.

It will be a straight fight between the Congress and BJP. Since Mr. Sorake personally took the initiative to make Kaup a TMC, it will be a matter of prestige for him to win the polls. But the BJP, which has performed well in the recently concluded Zilla and Taluk Panchayat elections in the district, will try to upset Mr. Sorake’s applecart.

K. Annamalai, Superintendent of Police, said a total of 250 police personnel including one Assistant Superintendent of Police, two inspectors, seven sub inspectors have been pressed into service to provide security for the polls.

The counting of votes will be taken up at the Court Hall in Taluk Office in Udupi from 8 a.m. onwards on April 27.