EC chief in B'lore today to review poll preparations

Bangalore, April 8: Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath is set to visit Bangalore on Monday to review the progress in the preparations for the May 5 assembly elections. Sampath will hold a meeting with representatives along with all political parties and hear their grievances. He will be assisted by election commissioners HS Brahma and SNA Zaidi.

The EC team will also meet top election officials here on Tuesday to discuss the poll and security arrangements in details. The poll process for the Karnataka elections kicks off on April 10 with the issue of notification by the state Governor. The candidates will start filing their nominations once the notification is issued.

The poll panel has taken a number of measures to check the use of money power in the elections besides putting a curb on paid news and other malpractices during the elections. The results of the polls will be declared on May 8.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley will be campaigning in Bangalore as part of the party's Sankalp convention. The BJP had formed its first government in south India when it came to power in Karnataka in 2008.

However, the party has received severe blows since then and will face a stiff challenge to retain power. It fared disastrously in the recently held urban local polls in the state.

The 224-seat state assembly has 36 constituencies reserved for the SCs while 15 are reserved for the STs. There are 41.8 crore voters in the state.

OneIndia News