Polling for the 28 Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka will be held in two phases -- on April 18 and 23, and vote count on May 23.
"Polling will be held in Karnataka in two phases on April 18 for 14 seats and April 23 for another 14 seats. Vote count will be held on May 23," Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced, in New Delhi on Sunday.
Polling will be held in central (Malnad) and southern regions in the first phase on April 18 and in the northern regions in the second phase on April 23.
Of the 28 constituencies, 5 are reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and two for the Scheduled Tribes (STs).
The SC seats are Bijapur, Gulbarga, Chitradurga, Chamarajanagar and Kolar and ST seats are Bellary and Raichur in the state's northern region.
The 14 constituencies to vote in the first phase are Udupi-Chikmagalur, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Mandya, Mysore, Chamarajnagar, Bangalore Rural, Bangalore North, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, Chikkaballapur and Kolar.
More From This Section
The other 14 constituencies, which will vote in the second phase, are Chikkodi, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davanagere and Shimoga.
"For the first phase, notification will be issued on March 19 and last date for filing nomination is March 26, scrutiny date is March 27 and last date for withdrawal of nominations is March 29," state Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar told reporters here.
For the second phase, notification will be issued on March 28, last date for filing nomination will be April 4, scrutiny date April 5 and last date for withdrawal of nominations April 8.
"The state has 5.03-crore electorate, comprising 2.5 crore males and 2.48 crore females and 4,718 others," Kumar said.
The number of polling booths in the state has gone up by 7 per cent to 58,186 for the 2019 general elections from 54,265 in the 2014 polls.
Polling in all the 28 parliamentary seats in the 2014 general elections was, however, held in a single phase on April 17, 2014. Votes were counted on May 16, 2014.
The BJP had won 17 seats, the Congress 9 and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) two.
--IANS
bha-fb/rs/pcj