BANGALORE: The elections to 207 municipal corporations in Karnataka, including six city corporations, have been put off, following an order by the Karnataka High Court to rework of the entire process of reservation of seats within nine weeks. The elections, now expected to be held in August, were announced with much fanfare on April 10. The court was giving its order on a petition challenging the reservation of seats.

Sources in the State Election Commission (SEC) told The Hindu here o Monday that the Election Commissioner, who had given his approval under the Municipal Election rules on April 10, would now withdraw it. Under the rules, after the Commissioner's approval, the Deputy Commissioners in the districts issue the notification. As per the April 10 order, the elections were scheduled for May 13 and the results were to be declared on May 15. The Deputy Commissioners were expected to notify the polls on April 24.

As a corollary to the postponement, the code of conduct, in force from April 10, also ceases to be in operation.

Announcing the calendar of events, State Election Commissioner M.R. Hegde had said that the code would come into effect straightway and that no new development programmes or relief could be announced by the Government till May 16, when the election process were to be completed.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, on receipt of the High Court orders, told The Hindu that the Government would adhere to the directions and redo the reservation list. "We will beat the court deadline. The two coalition partners are serious about the elections to the municipal bodies. Directions have since been issued to the authorities concerned to prepare the list of reserved seats."

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge told The Hindu that the two ruling parties were responsible for the postponement. "The two parties have been wanting a postponement since they do not see eye-to-eye and there are serious differences between them. As a political party, the Congress is fully geared for the elections. Eight campaign teams led by senior party leaders have been constituted and each team will take care of the party's campaign in three to four districts."

BJP State unit president D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Janata Dal (Secular) spokesman and MLC Y.S.V. Datta said the two parties were ready for the elections. As such, the Vikas Yatra of the BJP is under way.

The SEC had refrained from notifying elections to two of the eight city corporations — while the term of Mangalore Mahanagara Palike expires in June, the delimitation process is yet to be commissioned for the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike.

The six palikes scheduled to go to the polls were Hubli-Dharwad, Gulbarga, Davangere, Bellary, Mysore and Belgaum.

Of the 207 urban local bodies, 44 are city municipal councils, 93 town municipal councils and 64 town panchayats.

Fifteen petitions have been filed in the High Court against the election calendar and five of them have since been dismissed.

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