Elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly will be held on May 12 and the results will be declared on May 15, 2018 , the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on March 27, 2018. The Model Code of Conduct comes into effect immediately.
The tenure of the 224-member Assembly ends on May 28.
The ECI will probe an alleged leak of information on the schedule that was tweeted by the BJP IT Cell. The cell tweeted partially wrong information several minutes before the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O.P. Rawat announced the schedule. "Strongest possible action will be taken if there is any leak," said Mr. Rawat. "The ECI Social Media hub will look into the allegations of harnessing of user information through mobile applications of political parties and political personalities.".
The Congress has questioned how the BJP IT Cell Chief Amit Malviya got hold of details of the election dates (though not accurate) before the announcement was made.
Mr. Rawat addresses a press conference at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi.
There are 4.96 crore eligible voters (about 90 lakh added to draft electoral roll) in the State and there are 56,696 polling stations, compared to 52,034 in the 2013 polls (about 9% increase). There will be matching of EVM output with VVPAT slips at one randomly selected polling station in each constituency. Photographs of the candidates will also be available on the ballots in the EVMs.
Last election, the voter turnout was around 71.45%. The ECI will deploy observers in sensitive polling stations. The ceiling ofr expenditure is Rs. 28 lakhs.
Sources in the ECI had told The Hindu that in order to draw more voters this time, "the election date could be in the middle of the week so that the urban voter comes to the polling booth instead of travelling".
Karnataka is one of the few States in the country where the Congress, under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, is in power. With the BJP sweeping the polls in several States since coming to power at the Centre in 2014, it remains to be seen whether the party can stage a comeback in Karnataka.
In January, a six-member team of ECI officials concluded a two-day review of the election preparedness in Karnataka. It also took stock of the schedule of various examinations, fairs, and festivals in the State. Sources who attended the meeting had indicated that the possible election dates could be between the last week of April and the first week of May.
(With inputs from Devesh Pandey)
