Curtains will come down early on Thursday morning (7 a.m.) for public campaigning for elections to zilla panchayats and taluk panchayats in 15 districts of the State. The same evening will see the end of campaign for byelections to the Assembly constituencies of Hebbal, Deodurg, and Bidar. Both the elections are scheduled for Saturday.
According to the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, public campaigning for rural local body elections ends 48 hours before the commencement of polling. As a result, leaders of all parties had a packed schedule on Wednesday, with hectic campaigning scheduled across Karnataka.
Among the prominent leaders who campaigned on Wednesday were Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G. Parameshwara, BJP leaders Pralhad Joshi, B.S. Yeddyurppa and Jagadish Shettar, and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy. A total of 2,087 candidates are in the fray for 550 zilla panchayat (ZP) seats and 6,288 candidates are in the fray for 1,945 taluk panchayat (TP) seats. Independents are in the fray in 517 ZP constituencies and 1,188 TP constituencies.
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The districts that are going to polls in the first phase are: Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagaram, Chitradurga, Davangere, Kolar, Chickballapur, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Belagavi, Haveri, Bagalkot, Uttara Kannada, Dharwad, and Gadag. Officials of the State Election Commission said that two ZP and 11 TP candidates have been elected unopposed.
Another 15 districts would go to polls in the second phase on February 20.