ENS

Bangalore, Mar 15: Elections to the State Assembly will most likely be held in May. Speculations over the timing will end next week, when the Election Commission sends instructions to speed up preparations for polls.

“The EC is likely to send instructions by next Wednesday to go ahead with preparations for elections which will be held in May,” a senior official in the Chief Electoral Office told this website’s newspaper. The official said the instructions would be general, aimed at mobilising the logistics.

“A clearer picture on poll dates would emerge after getting these instructions,” the official said, and hastened to add that poll dates will not be a part of these instructions.

“The EC may take a little more time to announce poll dates,” the officer said, asserting that elections will be held in May.

Chief Electoral Officer Ramalingam Ramaseshan said delimitation of all Assembly segments had been completed. “We have also informed the EC about it on March 12,” he said, and added that the entire process took a fortnight’s time.

Ramaseshan said a revised list of electoral rolls, based on the newly delimited constituencies, will be ready in the next couple of days for the rest of the State, with the exception of Bangalore and other city corporations.

The final electoral rolls for Bangalore and city corporations will be announced on March 20, while revised rolls for the newly delimited constituencies in these areas will be announced in the fourth week of March.