Election panel prepares for polls to 17 ULBs

The State Election Commission (SEC) has set the ball rolling on conducting polls for 17 urban local bodies comprising 511 seats.

The SEC has written to the deputy commissioners of 11 districts where the urban local bodies will go to polls, asking them to make necessary preparations.

ULB elections are generally considered as a barometer to measure the mood of the electorate at the local level. And the impending polls to the 17 ULBs will be the first after the B S Yediyurappa-led BJP came to power following the collapse of the Congress-JD(S) coalition.

The 17 ULBs scheduled to go to polls include those whose term ends in December 2019 and also those where elections were not held as there were cases before the court.

The ULBs that will go to polls are: Hosakote, Kanakapura, Kolar, Mulbagal, KGF/Robertsonpet, Chikkaballapur, Gauribidanur, Chintamani and Hunsur City Municipal Councils; Magadi, Birur and Kampli Town
Municipal Councils; Jog-Kargal, Kundgol and Kudligi Town Panchayats; Davangere and Mangaluru City Corporations.

The SEC has asked the district authorities to prepare electoral rolls, polling booths, appoint election personnel and get electronic voting machines (EVMs), among other things.

Out of 106 ULBs whose term ends this year, the SEC conducted polls to 63 of them comprising 1,361 seats in May-June, soon after the Lok Sabha polls. But the BJP’s emphatic Lok Sabha victory appeared to have had little impact on ULB voters in which the Congress emerged on top winning 562 seats, followed by the BJP with 406, the JD(S) at 202 and Independents bagging 178.