Polls to 63 ULBs on May 29

Elections to 63 urban local bodies (ULB), excluding all city corporations such as Bengaluru, will be held on May 29, the State Election Commission announced here on Thursday.

With the announcement, the model code of conduct will come into force with immediate effect, State Election Commissioner P N Sreenivasachari told reporters.

“In the second phase, there are totally 103 ULBs whose term ends between March and July. But ward-wise reservation and delimitation pertaining to 39 ULBs are pending before the High Court. Also, we have decided not to hold polls for the Kundgol town panchayat owing to the bye-election to the Kundgol Assembly constituency. As a result, we are going ahead with polls for the remaining 63 ULBs,” Sreenivasachari explained.

These 63 ULBs - eight city municipal councils, 33 town municipal councils and 22 town panchayats - comprise 1,361 wards to which representatives will be elected.

The highest wards are in Bidar (128), followed by Tumakuru (114) and Mysuru (95) districts.

Electronic voting machines (EVM) will be used for polling but without Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). “Across India, VVPATs are not being used in any ULB polls. We’re talking to the government on getting VVPATs,” Sreenivasachari said.

Liquor ban

Manufacture and sale of liquor will be banned from May 13 to 31 in the 10 taluk panchayat seats and 202 gram panchayat seats for which bypolls will be held on May 29, Sreenivasachari said.

“Also, we are using ballot papers for the rural bypolls as existing Electronic Voting machines aren’t designed to allow voting for multiple candidates,” he added.

Two wards in the BBMP - Sagayapuram and Kaveripura - are among the seats where bypolls will be held on May 29.

Sreenivasachari also pointed out that 26 elected members in the gram panchayats and the taluk panchayats had been suspended for failing to submit details of assets and liabilities to the State Election Commission as per rules.