K'taka bypolls: Cong leaders hold meeting to discuss campaign strategy

Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition along with Congress party leaders held a meeting at Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office on Sunday, to discuss campaign strategy for upcoming by-polls in the state.

The meeting comes two days after, Karnataka Congress-JD(S) disqualified MLAs approached the Supreme Court seeking deferment of state bypolls which are scheduled to take place on December 5.

The Congress leaders is said to have discussed campaign strategy for the upcoming bypolls, as the Model code of conduct and process for filing of nominations will also commence from Monday. Former Minister DK Shivakumar and Dinesh Gundu Rao were also present in the meeting.

Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar on Sunday informed that the code of conduct would come into effect from Monday only in constituencies where elections were scheduled and not in the entire district.

Addressing pressperson on the issue Sanjiv Kumar informed that the process for filing of nominations will also commence from Monday and the last day for filing nominations is November 18.

Earlier, the Election Commission had postponed the bypolls, which were scheduled on October 21, to December 5 in view of the pendency of the petitions filed by the disqualified lawmakers.

“Before the postponement of elections, 29 nominations have been received. All their nominations remained valid. Though the electoral notification was issued by the EC on September 27, the enforcement of the model code of conduct was suspended till November 10 since it would adversely impact the development programs of the government, particularly for the poor,” Kumar added.