New Delhi: Sounding the poll bugle in Karnataka, the Election Commission on Tuesday announced the dates for the assembly elections.
Polling in the southern state will be held on May 12 and the results will be announced on May 15, according to the EC, which announced the dates at a press conference here. As is the norm, the model code of conduct will kick off with immediate effect, it said.
According to the EC announcement, the last date of filing nominations is April 24, scrutiny will be done on April 25 and the last date for withdrawal of candidates is April 27.
The ongoing term of the Karnataka assembly, which has 224 seats, ends on May 28.
The assembly elections in Karnataka are crucial for both the incumbent Congress-led government headed by Siddaramaiah and for the BJP, which is the key opposition party there and has managed to snatch away most state governments from the Congress in the country in a bid to usher in a ‘Congress-Mukt Bharat’.
The polls in Karnataka are being held in the backdrop of the BJP losing out in recent bypolls held in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where it is running the state governments. As of now, the BJP is ruling in most Indian states, except in the four southern states.
The poll scenario has already heated up in the state with chief minister Siddaramaiah announcing a separate flag for the state as well as a separate religion tag for the Lingayats, who form 17 % of the state’s population and are primarily the vote bank of theBJP. It is now for the BJP-ruled Centre to give a final stamp of approval to these two decisions.