K'taka votes on May 12; nation to receive results on May 15
BY Team MP27 March 2018 11:42 PM IST
Team MP28 March 2018 5:13 AM IST
New Delhi/ Bengaluru: Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat announced on Tuesday that the Karnataka Assembly elections will be held on May 12 and the votes will be counted on May 15. Like the last time, there will be single phase polls for the 224-member Assembly. The notification for the polls will be issued on April 17 and the last date for filing of nomination will be April 24, Rawat said at a press conference. April 27 will be the last date of withdrawals.
All electronic voting machines will be linked to Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines, he said. The polls this time are being seen as politically crucial for Karnataka's ruling Congress as well as for the BJP. It is the only big state where the Congress remains in power after losing a string of Assembly elections to the saffron party over the last few years.
The BJP is making a concerted bid to unseat the Congress while the JD(S), led by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, is the third player in the fray.
Cricketer Rahul Dravid as the state election icon, disabled government employees as polling staff and all-woman polling stations are among the slew of new initiatives taken up by the state electoral authorities for these elections. "Rahul Dravid will be the state election icon," Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sanjiv Kumar told reporters here. Yograj Bhat, film and music director, is making a title song, which will be 2018 "Karnataka Election Anthem" and it will get released in a week's time.
"Some of the persons with disabilities — employees of the government, will be participating in certain selected polling station as polling staff for the first time... We are encouraging them" Kumar said. He said "450 all women polling stations will be set up. Efforts are on for four in urban constituencies and one in rural constituencies."
Officials said that IT and other initiatives taken by the CEO's office for the elections include GPS-based vehicle tracking of flying squads, GIS-enabled complete database of polling station and digital maps, Digital Atlas of all polling station areas and assembly constituencies. For persons with disabilities, complete mapping of voters and their requirements and making available all required facilities, including wheel chair booking, would done, they said.
BJP IT chief too gives date... prior to EC
New Delhi: The BJP's IT cell chief Amit Malviya on Tuesday tweeted the date of the Karnataka Assembly polls before the Election Commission (EC) announced it, prompting the panel to describe the leak as a "very serious issue" that merited a probe and "stringent action". Malviya, however, tweeted that he had only quoted a news channel. His tweet came when CEC O P Rawat was addressing a press conference to announce the schedule for Karnataka polls but had not announced the date.
The BJP IT cell head said the election would be held on May 12 and counting would take place on May 18. While he was correct on the polling day, the votes will be counted on May 15. In the evening the EC set up a committee of senior officials to probe the leak.
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