With the bypoll to four Assembly constituencies in the city scheduled on December 5, the code of conduct is already in effect in K.R. Puram, Mahalakshmi Layout, Yeshwanthpur and Shivajinagar segments.
Addressing reporters here on Monday, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar, who is also the District Election Officer, said though the model code is in effect only in these constituencies, officials will be keeping an eye on the neighbouring constituencies as well.
Explaining, he said that though as per rules, the election officials cannot take any action on events that could be perceived as wooing voters, action could be initiated against the organisers if complaints are received about the same. As many as 60 officials will be monitoring poll code in all four constituencies.
“We will also seek a clarification about the same from the election commission,” he said and added that officials would be meeting with representatives of various political parties to discuss poll code and other election related issues.
About the polls, he said there will be 1,361 polling stations in the four constituencies, which will be manned by 5,899 election officials.
There were 14.32 lakh voters, including 7.41 lakh men and 6.90 lakh women. “In the 2019 parliamentary elections in April, the voter turnout in these four constituencies was 55.61% and the total number of citizens who voted was 7.92 lakh.
Mr. Anil Kumar said there was still time till November 18 to enrol names in the voters’ list. Till November 11, the civic body had received a total of 50,862 applications for name enrolment, of which 29,765 have been accepted and 959 rejected. That apart, 9,511 applications are yet to be processed, while 6,394 have been assigned for verification and field verification has been completed for 4,231 applications.
Nominations for the bypolls may be filed till November 18. Already, two persons have filed their nominations — one for K.R. Puram and another for Yeshwanthpur.
While the nominations will be scrutinised on November 19, the last date to withdraw nominations is November 21.
To attend to complaints related to polls, a complaint monitoring cell has been established at the BBMP head office. Citizens can contact the cell by calling 080-22975561 or 8884118033.
