The Election Commission on Sunday, November 10, said that by-elections in 15 Karnataka Assembly Constituencies will take place on December 5.
Karnataka's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sanjeev Kumar said the counting of votes will be held on December 9 and the Model Code of Conduct will come into effect from November 11. With the election date nearing, all eyes are on the Supreme Court verdict for the fate of the 17 disqualified MLAs of the state.
17 rebel MLAs from the Congress-JD(S) coalition had resigned from their parties ahead of the elections, paving way for the BJP to come into power after the collapse of HD Kumaraswamy-led government. The MLAs were disqualified by then Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar under the anti-defection law, barring them from contesting the by-polls.
The apex court on November 8 said that the disqualified MLAs' future will be decided on November 13 as they had moved the SC to deter the elections until a judgment in the case of their disqualification was pronounced.
Who are the disqualified MLAs?
14 rebel MLAs, including Ramesh Jarkiholi, ST Someshekhar, Shivaram Hebbar, R Roshan Baig, MTB Nagaraj, Pratap Gouda Patil, BC Patil, Anand Singh, Muniratna, K Sudhakar, Shrimant Patil, Mahesh Kumatahalli, Byrati Basavraj and R Shankar had resigned from the Congress and 3 MLAs from JD(S) - Narayana Gowda, AH Vishwanath and Gopalaiah.
At first, the by-polls were scheduled for October 21 but were later postponed as the disqualified legislators' case was still pending in the court. It was then rescheduled for December 5 after the disqualified legislators moved SC.
According to reports, polling will take place in 4185 polling stations across the state. However, the by-elections for Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency in Bengaluru and Maski constituency of Raichur district are yet to be announced.
