Election Commission team to arrive in Karnataka today

Bangalore, Apr 29 : An Election Commission (EC) team will arrive here today to review preparations for the ensuing Karnataka Assembly elections.

During the visit, the delegation led by Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami, along with Election Commissioners S Y Qureishi and Naveen Chawla will hold meetings with political leaders, election observers and senior police officials.

As many as 550 criminal cases have been filed in connection with violation of model code of conduct in the state, which goes to polls in three phases on May 10, 16 and 22.

The Congress, the BJP and the JD (S) have already announced their candidates for the first phase, scheduled for May 10. As many as 89 Assembly constituencies spread over 11 districts of Tumkur, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Ramanagar, Mandya, Hassan, Kodagu, Mysore and Chamarajnagar will go to polls in this phase.

The second phase of polling will take place on May 16, when a total of 66 Assembly constituencies in 10 districts of Raichur, Koppal, Uttara Kannada, Bellary, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Shimoga, Udupi, Chikmagalur and Dakshina Kannada will face the ballot. total of 69 Assembly constituencies in eight districts of North Karnataka, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, Bidar, Gulbaga, Bijapur, Bagalakot and Belgaum will face the ballot in the third phase.

The counting of votes in all the 224 constituencies will take place on May 25.

ANI