The first phase on Tuesday will see voting across the state for over 48,000 seats (Representational)
Voting for the two-phase panchayat polls in Karnataka will be held on Tuesday and Sunday. Over 5700 gram panchayat across all districts of the state will see voting, with counting and results on December 30.
The two phases have been introduced to avoid crowding because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Out of the total of 6,004 gram panchayats, 5,762 will see voting.
Almost 3 crore voters will be eligible to vote for over 92,000 gram panchayat members across the state. Voting will be from 7AM to 5 PM with all Covid precautions in place.
The first phase on Tuesday will see voting across the state for over 48,000 of the seats in over 3000 panchayats.
Over 4000 members have already been elected unopposed -- but given the high number, the Election Commission will later confirm that there was nothing illegal about this. There has been suspicion of many seats being 'auctioned' to the highest bidder with other potential candidates withdrawing their nominations.
The state's three main parties -- the ruling BJP, the Congress and the Janata Dal Secular are all keen to assert dominance in these grassroot elections. Panchayat polls are not officially fought on party lines, but most candidates do have political backing.
The BJP's Dr K Sudhakar told NDTV: "The BJP is very confident. The way the government has performed in the last year -- from handling the pandemic to development. I am very confident that in Karnataka, we will perform splendidly. BJP is going to perform very well in the coming gram panchayat polls even though the election does not involve the party symbols. People (winning candidates) who are supported by our cadre and workers will be more in number."
Congress MLC Prakash Rathod said: "We must remember that it was the BJP which defeated the Panchayat Raj Bill and it was Rajiv Gandhi who cried on the floor of the House because the Bill was defeated by the BJP by one vote. The BJP has no moral right to claim about gram swarajya. Congress will do very well in all panchayat elections. We have seen Congress has done well in Rajasthan. Though the elections are not on party lines, 90 percent of the winning candidates will be from the Congress".
The Janata Dal Secular has been considered to be getting close to the BJP of late - much to the annoyance of former coalition partner, the Congress. But ahead of the panchayat polls, former chief minister, HD Kumaraswamy of the JDS made it clear that rumours of his party merging with the BJP were baseless. "I have made it clear before and I am saying it again - as long as I am alive there is no question of the Janata Dal Secular merging with any other party," he said.