The Times of India                    15.02.2013

Polls to civic bodies on March 7

BANGALORE: Armed with the Supreme court directive to go ahead with elections, amid attempts by the Karnataka government to defer, the State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday announced that polls to 208 civic bodies including seven city corporations will be held on March 7.

Counting of votes will be held on March 11. Embroiled in its internal
political problems , the BJP nor the Congress-JD(S) were keen on the
polls, which will virtually be a barometer of urban voters response to
the parties. The state government initially delayed preparing the
reservation list for the wards and once the SEC approached the high
court and the apex court demanded the polls should be held on basis of
2011 census.

However, the apex court in its order on Wednesday
asked the government to cooperate with the SEC in conducting the polls,
which will now be done on the reservation that existed in 2007—– the
last polls.

Announcing the calendar of events here , State
Election Commissioner C R Chikkamath told reporters that polls will be
held to Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Bellary and
Davanagere city corporations besides 43 city municipalities, 93
municipalities and 65 town municipalities. All these civic bodies make
up for 4,976 wards.

The code of conduct will come into effect
from Friday, which could mean that the state government cannot announce
any new programmes for these districts. The poll notification will be
issued on Saturday. The last day for filing of nomination papers is
February 23, scrutiny on February 25 and withdrawals on February 27.

Civic bodies in and around Bangalore urban and rural will also go to polls.

Reacting to the SEC’s decision, KPCC president G Parameshwara said:
“More than welcoming the polls, the methodology to follow the 2007
reservation list was not fair. The polls should have been held on 2011
census basis.”