Karnataka Reports 189 Major Cases Of Election Code Violations: Election Commission

Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer said that 1.4 lakh polling officials will be on duty at the 30,602 polling stations across the 14 constituencies on April 26.

Election Code Violations: The Lok Sabha Elections 2024 started on April 19. Voting for the second phase will be held on April 26. Amidst this period, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday said that up till now, a total of 189 cases have been booked in Karnataka against political parties or candidates for major violations under the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) adding that all the polling stations in the Bangalore Rural and Mysore constituencies will be webcast.

Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Meena, while addressing a press conference, said that 1.4 lakh polling officials will be on duty at the 30,602 polling stations across the 14 constituencies that are going for polls in the first phase on Friday, April 26.

The voting for Lok Sabha Elections in Karnataka will be held in two phases on 26 April 2024, and 7 May 2024 to elect members of the 18th Lok Sabha.

Besides them, 5,000 micro-observers, 50,000 civil police personnel, 65 companies of the Central Parliamentary Force, and State Armed Police force of other states will also be deployed for security at these polling stations, said Meena.

“All the 2,829 polling stations of Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency will be 100 percent webcast. This is as per the request of our returning officers and observers; so we have given more than double central parliamentary force for the Bangalore Rural Constituency. Seven companies of central paramilitary forces have been inducted at the constituency since April 22,” he added.

The 14 constituencies where voting will be held on April 26 are Udupi-Chikmagalur, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Mandya, Mysore, Chamarajanagar, Bangalore Rural, Bangalore North, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, Chikkballapur and Kolar.

Constituencies where voting will take place on 7 May 2024 are Chikkodi, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davanagere, and Shimoga.

There are a total of 2,88,19,342 electors in these constituencies — 1,44,28,099 male, 1,43,88,176 female, and 3,067 third gender.

(With PTI inputs)