Karnataka State Election Commission mandates disclosure of disqualification in local poll affidavits

Bengaluru: The Karnataka State Election Commission (SEC) has mandated that candidates contesting local body elections must now declare whether they have been disqualified under any law governing panchayats, municipalities, corporations or the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act.

Candidates must spell out details of such disqualification and its duration, according to an SEC notification amending nomination rules for local body elections.

The new rules also require candidates to state in a sworn affidavit that they have not been disqualified.

Candidates filing nominations for local body polls already had to submit a sworn affidavit disclosing their criminal background, past convictions and sentences, assets and liabilties (including those of their family members), bank deposits, investments, income tax, educational qualifications, occupation and so on.

The amended rules have kicked in ahead of pending elections to gram panchayats, zilla panchayats (ZP, taluk panchayats (TP) and five municipal corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA). The ZP-TP elections have not been held since 2021. Also, the Bengaluru civic body polls are pending since 2020.

94,000 GP seats

Karnataka has 94,081 gram panchayat seats across all districts, according to multiple notifications issued by the rural development & panchayat raj (RDPR) department. Belagavi (8,413) alone accounts for nearly 9% of all seats.

Belagavi is followed by Tumakuru (5,338), Kalaburagi (4,429), Mysuru (4,317) and Vijayapura (3,949). These five districts have nearly 28% of all gram panchayat seats. Bengaluru Urban has 2,047 seats.

The state has 5,943 gram panchayats whose term ended in January and February. Elections to gram panchayats may not be announced until after the ongoing Census houselisting, which is slated to end on May 15.