Municipal polls on Feb 11
- Vote count and results on Feb 13
- Notification to be issued today
- Election code comes into effect
Hyderabad: Elections to 123 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), including 116 municipalities and seven corporations, in Telangana will be held in a single phase from 7 am to 5 pm on February 11. Results will be declared two days later (February 13). Meanwhile, the election code has come into immediate effect.
Announcing the schedule, State Election Commissioner I Rani Kumudini said here on Tuesday that over 52 lakh voters will be exercising their franchise overall. Meanwhile, indirect elections for mayors and chairpersons will be held on February 16.
The poll panel will be issuing the election notification on Wednesday. The last date for filing nominations will be up to 5 pm on January 30. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on January 31 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations will be February 3. On the same day, the Commission will publish the final list of contestants. Repolling will be taken up if needed on February 12. Counting of votes and results will be announced on February 13. Notification for taking up elections of chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of municipalities and mayor and deputy mayor of municipal corporations will be issued on February 14.
There are approximately 52.43 lakh voters, including 25.62 lakh men, 26.80 lakh women and 640 from the other category. Of the 2,996 wards that are going for elections, the breakup of reserved wards includes 463 (BC general), 391 (BC women), 254 (SC general), 190 (SC women), 147 ST (G), 40 ST(W), 640 unreserved (G) and 864 unreserved (W). There will be 8,203 polling stations and only ballot papers will be used.
Rani Kumudini stated that the expenditure limit for a corporator candidate will be Rs 1.5 lakh and for councillors Rs 50,000.
Additional DGP Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat said that about 25,000 police personnel would be deployed during the elections.
They were also taking forces from the forest and excise departments. He said that individuals can carry cash up to Rs 50,000, while they must submit details if they carry any cash in excess. Around 1800 weapons have already been deposited, he said. Webcast will cover all polling stations.
Bhagwat pointed out that they have identified 1,926 sensitive polling stations, 1,302 hyper-sensitive and 4,975 normal polling stations. Meanwhile, Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration (CDMA) T K Sridevi said that they have completed all arrangements, reservation of wards, appointment of returning officers, assistant returning officers and their training.
