Karnataka saw voter turnout of roughly 52.18% with the high stakes Assembly election polls to elect representatives to the 224-member State Legislative Assembly crossing the halfway mark on Wednesday till 3 pm.
Election officials reported that during the first six hours of voting, which started at 7 am and will continue until 6 pm, the coastal district of Udupi saw the highest turnout with 47.79% and the lowest with 29.41% in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) central limits (parts of Bengaluru city).
Deve Gowda, M Mallikarjun Kharge, D K Shivakumar, the state congressman, and Nalin Kumar Kateel, the president of the BJP’s state unit, were among those who voted.
2,615 candidates are running for office, and there are 5.3 crore (5,31,33,054 to be exact) electors who can cast their ballots in 58,545 polling places around the state.
In the 2018 Assembly elections, Karnataka saw a 72.36 percent voter turnout.
After obtaining 104 seats, the BJP became the single-largest party, followed by the Congress with 80 and the JD(S) with 37. There was also one independent legislator, while the BSP and Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) each had one representative.
The single largest party, the BJP, made a claim and established the government because no party had a clear majority at the time and Congress and JD(S) were attempting to create an alliance. However, because Yediyurappa lacked the necessary support, the government was overthrown three days before a vote on a trust.
The votes polled will be counted on 13 May.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai (Shiggaon), Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah (Varuna), JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy (Channapatna) and Shivakumar (Kanakapura) are the among the top candidates in the fray.
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.
A government with full majority appeared to be the rallying cry of all political party leaders during the last week of campaigning, as they emphasised the importance of obtaining a definite mandate to build a powerful and stable administration, as opposed to what transpired after the 2018 elections.
