58 Karnataka urban local bodies to see polls under Covid shadow

BENGALURU: Amid fears of the formation of new Covid-19 clusters in the state and the anxiety over the Omicron variant, the State Election Commission on Monday announced the election dates for 58 urban local bodies (ULBs) in Karnataka. The elections will be held on December 27 and counting of votes will be taken up on December 30. Most of the urban local bodies that will go to polls have remained without elected representatives for the last three to four years.

These polls will be the third major electoral test for Chief Miniser Basavaraj Bommai since he assumed office in July after the resignation of BS Yediyurappa. The bypolls to Hanagal and Sindagi Assembly segments were a mixed bag for the BJP with the party managing to win just Sindagi. The December 10 biennial elections to the Legislative Council from 20 local body constituencies for 25 seats will be another test for Bommai to reassert his position in the party after the BJP’s embarrassing defeat in Hanagal, located in his home district Haveri. 

Now, the urban local body polls will be yet another challenge for Bommai. Elections will be held in 1,185 wards of five city municipal corporations, 19 town municipal corporations and 34 town panchayats. Also, elections for four city municipal corporations, including Chikkamagaluru , Sira, Gadag-Betageri and 
Hosapete, along with three town municipal corporations — Athani, Annigeri and Bankapura. There are as many as 209 wards in these ULBs. 

Along with this, 976 wards from various CMCs, TMCs and Town Panchayats from Bengaluru Urban, Ramanagara, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Haveri, Uttara Kannada, Koppal, Ballari, Vijayanagara, Raichur and Yadgir districts will also be held. Bypolls for various CMCs, TMCs and Town Panchayats will also be held at Chamarajanagar, Davanagere, Uttara Kannada, Chikkaballapur, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Kalaburagi, Haveri and Bagalkot.

The schedule for the urban local bodies elections were announced following the directives from the High Court, which was hearing a series of petitions on elections to ULBs asked the SEC as to when it could hold them. The State Government had issued the reservation for these wards on November 27.