AMN/ WEB DESK
Voting for the Karnataka assembly elections will take place on the 10th of May in a single phase. The counting of votes will be held on 13th May. The term of the 224-member Karnataka Assembly will end on May 24.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the commission is committed to holding free and fair elections in Karnataka, and preparations are almost completed, He said the Commission, this time, laid a special focus on young voters, women, transgenders and vulnerable tribal groups. As per the Election Commission, the gazetted notification will be issued on 13th April. The last date of filing nominations is the 20th of April. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on 21st April, whereas the last date of withdrawal of candidature is 24th of April.
Rajiv Kumar informed that a total of 58,282 polling stations have been set up, in which 24,063 stations are urban areas and 34,219 in rural areas. The total number of voters in the state is 5.21 crore, of which 2.62 crore are male voters and 2.59 are female voters. The first-time voters in the state are over 9 lakh.
Out of 224 assembly seats, 36 seats are reserved for SC and 15 seats for STs. The Commission has arranged voting facilities from home for senior citizens and disabled people. The previous Assembly elections in Karnataka were held in 2018 in a single phase. Polling for the 2018 Karnataka assembly election took place on May 12 and the results were declared on May 15.
The overall turnout in the 224-seat Karnataka assembly polls was a little over 72 per cent. Bharatiya Janata Party won 104 seats, while the Congress got 80 seats and the JDS Secured 37. On Sunday, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the BJP would release its list of candidates after the announcement of election dates.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress and JD(S) have already announced their first list of candidates. State Congress president DK Shivakumar said the party’s second list of 100 candidates will be released after Thursday, March 30th. In its first list released last week, Congress named 124 candidates.
The Election Commission also announced the dates for by-poll to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats today. The by-poll on the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency will be held on 10 May. In the assembly segment, by-poll on Jharsuguda in Odisha, Sura, and Chhanbey, both in Uttar Pradesh, will be held on the same date. The result will be declared on the 13th of May. On the parliamentary constituency of Wayanad in Kerala, which recently fell vacant after the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said, the poll panel has a maximum of 6 months to hold the election for it.