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Karnataka Election 2023 News: From chief minister Basvaraj Bommai visiting Anjaneya Temple with his son and daughter to spotting Bengaluru civic body commissioner Tushar Giri Nath, top BJP leaders Nirmala Sitharaman and B S Yediyurappa at polling booths — it’s an action-packed morning in Karnataka as the state votes amid tight security.
The voting which began at 7 am will go on till 6 in the evening, following which pollsters like Axis My India, CVoter, Lokniti-CSDS, and Today’s Chanakya will release their exit poll results.
News18.com will publish the exit poll results, while its television news channel, CNN News18, will broadcast the predictions. Counting of polled votes will be taken up on May 13.
CLICK TO SEE PICS | Celebrities, Politicians Queue Up to Cast Votes
Top Contenders
Polling is being held for 224 seats in what is being seen mainly as a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular). The electoral fate of top guns — Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Congress veterans Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy among others will be sealed during the day-long exercise.
Besides Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy, Jagadish Shettar (Hubli-Dharwad Central) is the other former chief minister who is contesting this election. Shettar had recently joined the Congress, quitting BJP.
Number of Voters in Karnataka
• A total of 5,31,33,054 electors are eligible to cast their vote in 58,545 polling stations across the state, where 2,615 candidates are in the fray.
• Among the voters, 2,67,28,053 are male, 2,64,00,074 female and 4,927 “others”, while among the candidates 2,430 are male, 184 female and one from third gender.
• A total of 75,603 Ballot Units (BU), 70,300 Control Units (CU) and 76,202 voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) are slated to be used during the voting.
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Who Will Win Karnataka Elections?
While the ruling BJP, riding on the Modi juggernaut, wants to break the 38-year jinx — Karnataka has never voted the incumbent party to power since 1985 — and tighten the grip on its southern stronghold, the Congress is seeking to wrest power to give the party the much-needed elbow room and momentum to position itself as the main opposition player in the 2024 parliamentary polls.
Also what needs to be seen is, whether the JD (S) will emerge as a “kingmaker” or a “king” by holding the key for government formation, in the event of a hung verdict, as it has done in the past.
“A government with full majority” seemed to be the war cry of the leaders of all the political parties during campaigning that ended on Monday, as they stressed on getting a clear mandate to form a strong and stable government, unlike what happened after the 2018 polls.
Recalling 2018 Karnataka Election Results
In the 2018 Assembly elections, BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 104 seats, followed by Congress at 80, JD(S) 37. There was one independent member, while BSP and Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janata Party (KPJP) had one legislator each.
With no party having a clear majority and as the Congress and JD(S) were trying to forge an alliance, B S Yediyurappa of BJP staked claim and formed the government. However, it had to resign within three days ahead of the trust vote, unable to muster the required numbers.
Subsequently, the Congress-JD(S) alliance formed the government with Kumaraswamy as CM, but the wobbly dispensation collapsed in 14 months, as 17 legislators resigned and came out of the ruling coalition, and defected to BJP facilitating the party coming back to power. In the bypolls held subsequently in 2019, the ruling party won 12 out of 15 seats.
Security Arrangements for Karnataka Elections
According to poll officials, elaborate security arrangements have been made across the state for the smooth conduct of elections and forces have been deployed from neighbouring states as well.
As many as 84,119 State Police Officers and 58,500 CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces ) police in 650 CoYs (companies) are on law & order and security duty on poll day across the state.
‘Critical Polling Stations’ are covered by one or more of the measures like Micro Observers, Webcasting and CCTVs to keep a watch on the polling process as force multipliers. The voter turnout in the 2018 polls was 72.36 per cent.
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Places Shut in Wake of Karnataka Polls
In a bid to check apathy among voters, the Election Commission has come up with the idea of holding the poll in the middle of the week to prevent people planning an outing by clubbing the poll-day holiday with the weekend break.
One such popular tourist destination that has barred visitors from entering its premises on May 10 is Bengaluru’s Bannerghatta Biological Park. According to an official notice issued on the website of Bannerghatta Biological Park, the tiger, lion, bear, and butterfly parks will remain shut on May 10, along with the safari park and the zoo located within the perimeter of the Park.
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