Election Commission team to arrive in Karnataka today

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N. Gopalaswami alongwith two Election Commissioners Dr. S Y Qureshi and Navin Chawla will arrive here on a two-day visit today to review preparations for the ensuing Karnataka Assembly elections.

Bangalore, Apr 4 : Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N. Gopalaswami alongwith two Election Commissioners Dr. S Y Qureshi and Navin Chawla will arrive here on a two-day visit today to review preparations for the ensuing Karnataka Assembly elections.

During the visit, the team will review the steps initiated by the electoral authorities for the conduct of polls on May 10, 16 and 22 in 224 Assembly segments. The counting of votes will take place on May 25.

Besides, the team will also meet political parties to seek their support to ensure free and fair polls in the state.

On Saturday, the EC will hold discussion with State Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao and State DGP KR Srinivasan in connection with the deployment of staff on polling days.

As per electoral rolls, there are around 40,077,666 electors of which 20,399,338 are male and 19,678,328 female.

The EC has planned to set up 39,758 polling stations in the state, besides, the District Election Officers (DEO) have been authorized to propose setting up of auxiliary polling stations wherever needed from voter's convenience point of view.

For the facility of disabled persons, instructions have been issued to ensure that all polling stations are located at ground floor and ramps are provided.

As many as 36 seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and 15 for Scheduled Tribes (ST).

The notification for the first phase of polls will be issued on April 16 and the last date of filing of nominations will be April 23. Scrutiny will be done the next day and last date of withdrawal will be April 26.

For the second phase, nominations will begin on April 22 and will end on April 29 followed by scrutiny the next day. The last date for withdrawal of nominations will be May 2.

Nominations in the final phase will begin on April 26 and the last date for nominations will be May 3. Scrutiny will take place on May 5 and the last date for withdrawal will be May 7.

Karnataka came under President's rule in November last year after the collapse of the BJP-JDS coalition Government.

ANI