Two-phase Karnataka panchayat polls to be held on December 22, 27

KEY STORY

•  The state election commission on Monday announced a two-phase poll to over 5,762 gram panchayats across 30 districts in Karnataka. Elections will be held on December 22 and 27, and the results will be announced on December 30.

• Announcing the schedule of polls, State Election Commissioner B Basavaraju told reporters that the last date for filing nomination will be December 11 and December 17 for first and second phase respectively.

“All the districts will have two phase polling, and the decision was taken in the light of Covid -19 pandemic. The model code of conduct for elections will come into force with immediate effect,” he added.

• The announcement comes in the light of Karnataka High Court providing three weeks’ time to the SEC to announce dates for conducting gram panchayat polls.

  “EVMs will be used in Bidar district and ballot papers in the rest of the state. In all, 5,762 gram panchayats out of 6,004 gram panchayats will be going for polls in these two phases,” said Basavaraj adding that that 162 gram panchayats whose tenure will end after December 20 will not be going in for polls. Likewise, he said 74 gram panchayats which have been upgraded or partially upgraded will also not go for polls along 6 gram panchayats that have litigation in court.

• The 2.96 crore electors will vote to elect 92,121 gram panchayat members in all. As many as 45,128 polling booths will be set up, and about 2.7 lakh polling officials will be deployed to oversee elections.