Karnataka ready for polls in May

The Election Commission prepares electoral rolls in record 14 days.

The Election Commission has created a record of sorts in Karnataka by successfully completing the massive exercise of preparing electoral rolls as per the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission in just 14 days!

With this, Karnataka is all set to go to the hustings before May 28, the day when President's Rule in the state formally ends.

Speaking to reporters here on Friday, State Chief Electoral Officer R Ramaseshan said: "This is an historical achievement. The delimitation exercise (redrawing boundaries of constituencies and preparing fresh electoral rolls) in all the 224 constituencies has been completed. We will send a report to the EC officials in New Delhi and they will take a decision on announcing the poll dates for Karnataka."

Sources in the EC said the polls are likely to be held in two phases on May 7 and 14.

Ramaseshan, who chose not to comment on the tentative dates, said the official machinery was all prepared to conduct elections. "We worked round-the-clock and managed to complete the fresh electoral rolls. Now we are waiting for orders from the EC," Ramaseshan said.

The EC's feat, in fact, has left several political parties shocked as the latter had predicted postponement of elections by four to six months. The political parties had argued: "As the delimitation exercise has been taken up after three decades, preparing electoral rolls as per the redrawn boundaries will be an elaborate process and time-consuming."

However, the EC sprang a surprise when it took up a pilot project in Mandya district and completed the exercise in a record time of two days in February. Buoyed by the speed clocked in Mandya, top Election Commission officials directed Ramaseshan and his team to replicate the exercise in other districts in the state.

A fortnight back, Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalswami and fellow commissioners Naveen Chawla and Quaraishi visited Bangalore and reviewed the poll preparation work. Gopalswami has dropped enough hints of conducting polls before the end of the President's Rule.

Ramaseshan said each constituency will now have a minimum voter population of 240,000 voters.