CM to seek exclusion of urban areas from election code

Speaking to mediapersons at Hubli airport on Friday, the chief minister said development projects were suffering due to enforcement of the code of conduct in urban areas. “Hence I will request the SEC to exclude urban areas from model code.”

The Dharwad Circuit Bench of the High Court has vacated the stay on ZP elections in Koppal, Gadag and Haveri districts and a similar verdict is expected from Gulbarga Bench too. The election to 30 ZPs in the State would be held as per schedule, he said.

Aasare houses

Yeddyurappa said the construction of ‘Aasare’ houses for the flood-affected in North Karnataka was delayed to incessant rains. He declared that all the 60,000 dwelling units would be ready for March 15 and there will be no further relaxation of the deadline.

“My statement on not visiting the place where BJP is trounced applies only to Shikaripur and not the entire State. I have only urged the people to support BJP and not put pressure on them,” the chief minister clarified.

He refused to comment on the reported statement of BJP National President Nitin Gadkari against Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde.

Yeddyurappa,who was in Bellada Bagadevadi (Hukkeri taluk) to attend the marriage of minister Umesh Katti’s daughter, told reporters that month-long Assembly session would be held in Belgaum, after January 15. Replying to a query, chief minister said he was in possession of documents related to benami land transactions of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and his family and would make them public at ‘appropriate time.’

Candidates’ list

Speaking to reporters in Bangalore, BJP legislator Aravind Limbavali said a delegation of party leaders would meet the State Election Commissioner with an appeal to lift model code of conduct in urban areas. He said there was no point in enforcing the code where there were no elections.

Limbavali said the list of candidates for for the first phase of poll (Dec 26) would be ready by Saturday.

The party has constituted district-level committees to select candidates. The chances of winning and background would be considered for selection.