Times of India

Bangalore, Sep 5: Armed with a Supreme Court directive to complete the poll process by September 30, the State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday announced the calendar of events for holding elections to 208 urban local bodies (ULBs). 

Elections will be held on September 28 and the results will be out on September 30. Polls to Bangalore Mahanagara Palike will not be held now as ward delimitation is still going on. 

SEC commissioner M R Hegde expressed unhappiness over repeated deferring of ULB polls. The SEC’s decision to hold elections in April was stayed by the high court, which gave nine weeks for the Karnataka government to set right the reservation list. 

When SEC announced August 30 as poll date, political parties prevailed upon the government to defer it again, citing monsoon and a string of festivals. The high court stayed the dates but set September 30 as the deadline to complete the process. The SEC had challenged the high court decision in the apex court, which upheld its plea. 

Barring Bangalore, all other city corporations — Mysore, Bellary, Hubli-Dharwad, Davanagere, Gulbarga, Belgaum and Mangalore — will go to polls along with 44 CMCs, 93 municipalities and 64 town panchayats. Over 90.31 lakh people across the state will exercise their franchise. The model code of conduct came into force on Tuesday. With this, no new schemes can be launched.
  
THE CALENDAR

Sept 10: Issue of notification

Sept 17: Last date to file papers

Sept 18: Scrutiny of papers

Sept 20: Last date to pull out

Sept 28: Polling

Sept 30: Counting of votes