Over 1.3 million new voters in Karnataka

Bangalore, March 17 (IANS) Karnataka added over 1.3 million (1,390,000) new voters since Feb 8 till Sunday, which was the deadline to enroll in the voters' list for the general elections, a senior poll official said Monday.

"Around 2.5 lakh people applied for registration as voters Sunday from across the state, including 54,815 in Bangalore while 79,815 people registered March 9 at special camps we held at all the 54,261 polling booths in the state," state's chief electoral officer Anil Kumar Jha told reporters here.

With the addition of new voters, the state has 4,60,33,877 registered voters.

New voters will be given the electoral photo identity card (EPIC) within a week after scrutiny March 26.

"Of the total, 79,800 applications for voters' registration were online from across the state," Jha said.

Elections will be held April 17 (Thursday) in 28 parliamentary constituencies, including five reserved for Scheduled Castes and two for Scheduled Tribes candidates, of the state.

"The Election Commission did not consider the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) request to re-schedule the polling date beyond April 17 due to series of holidays in the third week of next month. Polling will be held for 11 hours from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.," Jha noted.

Deputy election commissioner Alok Shukla will hold a special meeting here Tuesday with officials to review preparedness for conducting free and fair elections in the state.

Notification will be March 19 and candidates can file nominations till March 26.

"Scrutiny will be March 27 and withdrawal March 29. Campaigning will conclude April 15," Jha added.

Counting, however, will be May 16, as in the rest of the country.