BENGALURU: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has notified biennial elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council by Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to fill vacancies arising due to the retirement of members whose term ends on June 30.
The term of MLCs Govinda Raju, Naseer Ahmed, N Nagaraju (MTB), Prathap Simha Nayak K, Tippannappa, Sunil Vallyapur and BK Hariprasad ends on June 30.
The biennial election process will enable MLAs to elect new members to the Upper House of the Karnataka legislature to fill the outgoing vacancies. The polls will be a game changer as the Congress will get an upper hand in the Council, and help the government pass many bills which would have collapsed in the Upper House as they did not have a majority.
The election schedule has been announced, and the notification will be issued on June 1.
The last date for filing nominations is June 8, scrutiny of nominations will be on June 9 and candidates can withdraw nominations until June 11. Polling will take place on June 18, from 9am to 4pm, and counting of votes will commence at 5pm the same day. The entire election process is scheduled to be completed by June 20.