Elections to K'taka urban local bodies on May 13

Bangalore, Apr 10 (UNI) The Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition Government in Karnataka will be put to litmus test in the elections to the Urban Local Bodies, scheduled to be held on May 13.

Announcing the schedule here, Karnataka Election Commissioner M R Hegde told newspersons that the notification for 207 Urban Local Bodies, except Bangalore and Mangalore, would be issued on April 24.

The model code of conduct would come into effect from today.

He said 8.7 million voters, including 4.29 million women, would exercise their franchise in the polls. In all, 9,786 polling booths would be set up, of which 3,575 were declared as sensitive and 3,926 as hyper-sensitive.

The elections to the urban local bodies included four city Corporations, 44 City Municipalities, 93 Town Municipalities and 64 Town Panchayats. Elections would be held for 321 wards in City Corporations, 1,424 wards in City Municipalities, 93 wards in Town Municipalities and 64 wards in Town Panchayats.

Mr Hegde said nominations could be filed from April 24 and the last date for filing the papers was May two. Scrutiny of nominations would be taken up the next day. Withdrawal of papers was allowed up to May five. Counting of votes would be taken up on May 16.

UNI