Mangaluru : The 60 wards of Mangaluru City Corporation Council will go to the polls on November 12, 2019, as the Election Commission announced the calender of events on Sunday.
Polling will be conducted from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.. Counting will be held on November 14, the commission said.
The model code of conduct will be in force with immediate effect till November 14 when the election process will be completed, it said.
The Deputy Commissioner will issue the election notification on October 24.
The last date to file nomination papers is October 31. They will be scrutinised on November 2. The last date for withdrawing nominations is November 4.
If there is a need for re-election in any wards, it will be conducted on November 13, it said.
The maximum expenditure per candidate has been fixed at Rs.3 lakh, the commission said. With the model code of conduct in force, Commissioner of the corporation S. Ajith Kumar Hegde instructed the concerned to remove hoardings, banners, cut-outs and flexes of political leaders and parties in the city.
In the last elections held to the council in March 2013, the Congress won the polls with 35 seats. The BJP won 20 seats and the Janata Dal (Secular), the Communist Party of India (Marxists) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) shared two seats each. An Independent was also elected. The BJP lost power in the council which it had captured for the first time in the 2007 elections.
Though the last elections were held in 2013, the council came into being in March 2014 after one year from the date of the elections due to reservation issues pertaining to the offices of the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor.
The BJP won 34 seats in the 2007 elections. The Congress had been able to win 20 seats then. The Janata Dal (Secular) could get one seat and five seats had been bagged by others.