Rural elections: HC cites Bihar, asks Karnataka poll panel to finalise dates

Citing the smooth conduct of the Bihar Assembly polls, the Karnataka High Court has directed the state Election Commission to finalise the schedule for gram panchayat elections within three weeks and asked the state government to provide funds for the polls.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Srinivas Oka issued the orders in a petition filed by Congress leader K C Kondaiah and others, seeking elections to 6,015 gram panchayats — terms of most of these gram panchayats ended in October and those of the others will end in November and December. The bench cited the conduct of polls in Bihar after the Karnataka government pointed to the pandemic.