Karnataka Assembly Election 2023: The Election Commission of India has announced the Karnataka assembly polls schedule to be held in May this year. The term of the current assembly ends on May 24. There are 224 Assembly constituencies of which 36 are reserved for the SCs and 15 for the STs. While the election is likely to be a two-sided contest between the ruling BJP and the Congress, HD Kumaraswamy-led JDS may play spoilsport for both parties on a significant number of seats. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the notification for the elections to the 224-member assembly will be issued on April 13 and the last date for filing nomination papers will be April 20.
The Chief Election Commissioner said the nomination papers will be scrutinised on April 21 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations will be April 24.
Date of Issue Of Gazette Notification: April 13
Last Date Of Making Nominations: April 20
Date For Scrutiny of Nominations: April 21
Last Date For Withdrawal Of Candidature: April 24
Date Of Poll: May 10
Date Of Counting: May 13
Date Before Which Election Shall Be Completed: May 15
Schedule for Bye Elections in PCs and ACs.#ECI #ElectionCommissionofIndia pic.twitter.com/agaz7thXJT
— Election Commission of India #SVEEP (@ECISVEEP) March 29, 2023
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the elections have been scheduled on a Wednesday, and not on a Monday or Friday, to encourage greater participation of voters.
Kumar said that while the Election Commission have been focussing on curbing the use of muscle power in the polls, this time, the bigger challenge for them is the use of money power in the elections.
According to the election commission, there are a total of 5.21 crore voters in the state out of which 16,976 voters are aged above 100. The ECI will set up over 58,000 polling stations. The total electorates in the state are 5,21,73,579 crores of which males are 2.62 crores and females are 2.59 crores. The total number of 80 plus electors is 12.15 lakhs. It is an increase of 32 per cent from 2018. The number of persons with disabilities (PWDs) has increased to 5.55 lakhs. The first-time voters have increased from 2018-19 by 9.17 lakhs in Karnataka. The average number of electors per polling station comes to 883.
There would be 240 model polling stations which will be made eco-friendly and green booths. 100 booths would be managed purely by persons with disability. The Karnataka Assembly currently has 119 MLAs of the ruling BJP, while Congress has 75 and its ally JD(S) has 28 seats.
