Two phase election for 28 Lok Sabha seats in K'taka

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Election Officer Sanjiv Kumar informed the elections will be held in two phases for the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka on April 18 and April 23.

In the first and second phase, elections to 14 Lok Sabha seats each will be held on April 18 and April 23. For the first phase, notifications would be issued on Mar 19 and the last date for nominations would be March 26.

The scrutiny of nominations would be on March 27 and the last date for withdrawal March 29, he added. For the second phase, notification would be issued on March 28 and last date for nominations would be April 4, Kumar said, adding that the scrutiny will be conducted on April 5
and the last date for withdrawal will be April 8.

A total of 5,03,46,721 voters, including 2,48,47,292 women, are eligible to exercise their franchise as per the final electoral roll, Kumar said.

Of the 28 parliamentary seats in Karnataka, five seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste and two for Scheduled Tribe, he added.

The five reserved constituencies for SC are Bijapur, Kalaburgi, Chitradurga, Chamrajnagar and Kolar, whereas, reserved seats for ST are Raichur and Ballari, he said.

“There are 58,186 polling stations this time compared to 54,265 in 2014 election,” he added.

He also said there was a seven per cent increase in the number of a polling station for this elections compared to the 2014 polls.

Kumar also said as many as 600 women-managed polling stations will be set up across Karnataka