Bypolls for 15 Karnataka Assembly seats to be held on Dec 5

Ahead of the model code of conduct coming into effect from Monday in the 15 Assembly constituencies where by-polls are scheduled, Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said the preparations were afoot for the smooth conduct of elections on December 5.

The model code of conduct shall come into force from November 11 in the district or districts in which the whole or any part of the assembly constituency going for byelection is included, Kumar told reporters on Sunday.

He said the code of conduct would be applicable to the candidates, political parties, state government and the Union government for the districts concerned.

According to the amended schedule for the byelections, the date for filing nominations starts from Monday and the last date of nominations is November 18.

The date of scrutiny of nominations is November 19 and the last date for the withdrawal of candidates is November 21 and the byelections would take place on December 5 from 7 am to 6 pm.

The counting of votes would take place on December 9.

The byelections would take place in Athani, Kagwad, Gokak, Yellapura, Hirekerur, Ranebennur, Vijayanagara, Chikkaballapura, KR Pura, Yashwanthapura, Mahalakshmi Layout, Shivajinagar, Hoskote, KR Pete and Hunsur.

The constituencies have 37.5 lakh voters, who would exercise their franchise at 4,185 polling stations.

We have enough number of EVM-VVPATs for the 4,185 polling stations. We have 200 per cent BU, CU (ballot units and control units) and VVPATs. They have been kept safely, Kumar told reporters.

There would be a deployment of 22,598 poll personnel.

The Election Commission has set up an integrated complaint monitoring and media monitoring centre at the office of the CEO at Khanija Bhavan here.

Besides receiving complaints through letters, emails and national grievances redressal system web portal, people can use the eVIGIL mobile application.

Kumar said training has been held for the all the officers involved at various levels and another level of training would be organised.

Another important feature of the byelection is the usage of M3 EVMs, which have advanced features, on a large- scale in Karnataka.

When the election process was started previously before the ECI deferred the election from October 21 to December 5, 29 people had filed the nominations.

The CEO of Karnataka said those nominations still hold good.

There are 29 nominations. They hold good. They are also very much there. Out of 29, 15 belong to national parties, three are unrecognised party and another 11 are independent, Kumar said in reply to a query.

These bypolls were necessitated after the resignation and subsequent disqualification of 17 MLAs comprising 14 from Congress and three from the JD(S) by the then speaker K R Ramesh Kumar.

Their disqualification had brought down the coalition government of Congress and the JD(S) and installed the BJP government in Karnataka.

The election dates for Rajarajeshwari Nagar and Maski constituencies were not announced as the matter is pending in court.