Single phase Karnataka Assembly elections on May 5

New Delhi, Mar 20: The

Assembly polls will be held on May 5 (Sunday) and the counting of votes will be done on May 8 (Wednesday).

Announcing the schedule of the elections today, Chief Election Commissioner V Sampath said that as many as 50,446 polling stations will be set up for the elections.

A total of 4.18 crore voters in the state are eligible to choose which of the candidates in the fray should represent them in the state Assembly. With this the Model Code of Conduct comes into effect in the state from today.

The notification for the elections will be issued on April 10. The last date for candidates to submit their nominations is April 17. The nomination papers filed till then will be scrutinised on April 18. The last date for withdrawing nominations is April 20.

The tenure of the current 224-member Karnataka Assembly is set to expire on June 3.

The announcement of poll dates came after a meeting of top election officials with Union Home Secretary RK Singh on the availability of security forces for the smooth conduct of polls.

After the outcome of recent urban local bodies, the ruling BJP faces a tough challenge and the opposition Congress is grappling with leadership issues, even though it did fare well in BJP stronghold.

OneIndia News