Election Commission to announce Karnataka assembly election schedule today

The Election Commission of India (ECI) will today announce the schedule of the Karnataka assembly election due in May this year. The poll panel has issued an invite to announce the election schedule at 11.30 am.

The Congress party has been holding aggressive campaign against the ruling BJP alleging massive corruption while the saffron party recently untook ‘Vijay Sankalp Yatra’ across the state.

On Saturday, the Congress party announced its first list of 124 candidates for the Karnataka Assembly elections, with former chief minister Siddaramaiah fielded from the Varuna constituency in Mysuru, replacing his son and sitting MLA Yathindra.

Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar has been fielded from Kanakapura assembly constituency, with the first list mostly containing the party’s sitting seats and the constituencies for which only one name was recommended by the state unit.

Janata Dal-Secular, another major force in the southern state, has also announced the names of candidates for 93 constituencies. Former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday announced that JD-S government would provide 50 per cent subsidy on cooking gas cylinders if it is voted to power.

“The central government has implemented the Ujwala scheme by promising to provide free gas. Women who believed this were given a cylinder and given a shock of price hike. Now the price of a cylinder has crossed ₹1,000 and it is impossible for poor people to survive,” Kumaraswamy said.