As many as 481 of the total 517 gram panchayats (GPs) spread over 10 taluks in the district will go to polls in the first phase on May 29. Polling will be held for the wards having more than one contestant in the electoral fray.
Announcing the calendar of events and issuance of notification for conducting elections to the GPs, Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer N. Jayaram said here on Monday that the nomination process commenced on Monday and the last date for filing nominations was May 18. Scrutiny of nomination papers would be taken up on May 19 and the last date for withdrawal is May 21.
Elections would be conducted on May 29 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. If necessary, re-polling would be held on May 31. Counting of ballots would be taken up on June 5 at respective taluk centres from 8 a.m. onwards.
He said that after the latest delimitation of gram panchayat constituencies, the total strength of GPs in the district had gone up from 485 in 2010 to 517 GPs. Elections for the remaining 36 GPs would be conducted after completion of their term in August.
Reservations
Of the total 8,455 seats in 481 GPs, 1,066 seats have been reserved for the Scheduled Castes (688 for women), 870 for the Scheduled Tribes (639 for women), 1,723 for the backward classes category A (979 for women), 439 for backward class category B (222 for women), and 4,357 seats for the general category (1,891 for women).
Taluk-wise, 56 GPs in Belagavi taluk go to polls on May 29, 51 GPs in Khanapur, 49 in Hukkeri, 48 in Bailhongal, 40 in Savadatti, 34 in Ramdurg, 57 in Gokak, 64 in Chikkodi, 32 in Raibag and 50 GPs in Athani taluk.
There are 23,45,906 voters — 11,37,861 women voters — eligible to exercise their franchise in the 481 GPs. A total of 2,942 polling stations have been set up, of which 653 are categorised as sensitive and 525 as hyper-sensitive. As many as 43 Nodal Officers/Special Executive Magistrates had been appointed for as many hobli centres in the district.
Polling will be held for wards with more than one contestant in the fray
Re-polling for first phase, if required, will be held on May 31
