The battle lines have been drawn for the civic polls with 21,974 candidates in fray for 4,867 seats in 208 urban local bodies (ULBs) across the State. Elections are scheduled be held on March 7 and counting of votes will be taken up on March 11.
According to statistics released by the State Election Commission (SEC), the Congress has fielded the highest number of candidates (4,492), followed by BJP the (3,954) and the JD-S (3,651).
Wednesday was the last day for withdrawal of nominations. The two new regional parties, the BSR Congress and B S Yeddyurappa’s KJP, which will be testing political waters for the first time, have fielded 1,966 and 1,496 candidates respectively.
As many as 5,900 Indep endent candidates are also in the fray. A total of 85 candidates have been elected unopposed. No nomination papers were received in 24 wards including all 23 wards in Terdal Town Municipal Council and one ward in Chikkaballapur City Municipal Council. The people of Terdal decided to boycott the polls in protest against not being declared a taluk.
The ULB polls is expected to be a pointer to the forthcoming Assembly election reflecting the ground-level strengths of the parties.
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