The Election Commission of India on Sunday announced that the byepolls in 15 Karnataka Assembly seats will be conducted on December 5 as earlier announced. For the same, the Model code of conduct will come into force from Monday in the district(s) in which the whole or any part of the Assembly constituency going for election is included, subject to partial modification.
The announcement by EC comes after the Supreme Court on Friday said the fate of the 17 disqualified Karnataka MLAs will be decided on November 13. These MLAs of the former JD(S)-Congress coalition government had resigned from their positions to pave way for the BJP to form a government in the state. The MLAs are hoping for a favourable verdict as they want to contest the bye-elections in the 17 constituencies.
The bye-elections to 15 constituencies were initially scheduled for October 21 but it was later deferred until the three-judge bench decides on the petitions by the 17 disqualified legislators. Bye-elections to RR Nagar and Maski are yet to be announced. The bye-elections were first rescheduled for December 5 but the disqualified MLAs once again moved the SC to further defer the polls until the case is resolved. The polling will happen in 4185 polling stations.
The 17 rebels include Pratap Gouda Patil, BC Patil, Shivaram Hebbar, ST Someshekhar, Byrati Basavraj, Anand Singh, R Roshan Baig, Muniratna, K Sudhakar, MTB Nagaraj, Shrimant Patil, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumatahalli and R Shankar from the Congress and JD(S) legislators AH Vishwanath, Gopalaiah and Narayana Gowda.
For the byepolls, the EC said an integrated Complaint Monitoring and Media Monitoring centre has been established in the O/o Chief Electoral Officer, 2nd floor, East Wing, Khanija Bhavan, Race Course Road, Bengaluru.
Other than letters and email at ceo.karnataka@gmail.com, voters can complain of violations through National Grievances Redressal System (NGRS) web portal, or by calling 1950 toll free number for District Voter Helpline and 1800 4255 1950 for State Voter Helpline.