Polling for the Karnataka Assembly ended at 6 pm on Wednesday and the overall voter turnout at nearly 72 percent, informed the Election Commission (EC).
Exit polls from several media houses have predicted a hung assembly but with many giving an edge to the opposition Congress while a few predicted the BJP coming back to power. The magic figure required for any party to form a simple majority government is 113.
List of Exit polls
- The Jan Ki Baat exit poll gave BJP 94-117 seats, the Congress 91-106, JDS 14-24, and others 0-2 seats in its prediction (possible BJP win)
- The Matrize poll gave BJP 79-94 seats, Congress 103-118, JDS 25-33, and others 2-5 seats (possible Congress win)
- The PMARQ exit poll gave BJP 85-100, Congress 94-108, JDS 24-32, and others 2-6 seats (possible Congress majority)
- The C Voter exit poll gave BJP 66-86 seats, Congress 81-101, JDS 20-27, and others 0-3 seats (possible Congress majority)
- The Polstrat exit poll gave BJP 88-98, Congress 99-109, JDS 21-26, and others 0-4 seats (possible Congress majority)
- The South First- Peoples pulse poll gave BJP 78-90, Congress 107-119, JDS 23-29 and others 1-3 seats (possible Congress win)
- The India TV-CNX exit polls gave the Congress 110-120 seats and the BJP 80-90 seats. They predicted 20-24 seats for the JD (S). (possible Congress win)
- The News Nation-CGS poll said the BJP would get 114 seats, the Congress 86 and the JD(S) 21. (possible BJP win)
- Times Now-ETG exit polls gave 113 seats to the Congress and 85 to the BJP. It predicted 23 seats for JD (S). (possible Congress win)
- News 24- Today’s Chanakya predicted 120 seats for Congress, 92 for BJP and JD (S) at 12 (Win for Congress)
- India Today- Axis My India poll predicted 122-140 for Congress, 62-80 for the BJP and 20-25 for the JD (S) (Win for Congress)
With just an hour left for voting to close for the polls to the 224-member Assembly, Ramanagara recorded the highest turnout of 78.22 per cent, while the lowest polling was from Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) South limits (parts of Bengaluru city) at 48.63 per cent, election officials said.
The state is mainly witnessing a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular).
A total of 5.31 crore electors are eligible to cast their vote in 58,545 polling stations across the state, where 2,615 candidates are in the fray.
Prominent among those who voted today include former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and former Chief Ministers B S Yediyurappa and D V Sadananda Gowda (both BJP) and Siddaramaiah and Jagadish Shettar (both Congress) and IT industry veteran N R Narayana Murthy and wife Sudha Murty.
Karnataka recorded a voter turnout of 72.36 per cent in the 2018 Assembly polls.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who is seeking re-election from Shiggaon in Haveri district for a fourth consecutive term, said he would win with a record margin. “So is the BJP,” he added, “which is going to win with a record number of seats.”
Bommai said the party would get a “comfortable majority”.
First-time voters and the elderly stole the show as they were seen participating in the voting process enthusiastically in many segments.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier on Wednesday urged the people of Karnataka to vote in large numbers and enrich the “festival of democracy”.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi too appealed to the people of Karnataka to vote in large numbers to build a progressive and a “40-per-cent-commission-free” state.
Meanwhile, violence was reported in some areas. Villagers of Masabinal in Vijayapura district stopped a poll duty vehicle carrying electronic voting machines (EVMs), manhandled an officer and damaged some control and ballot units on Wednesday, following which 23 persons were arrested, the Election Commission said.
The villagers stopped a sector officer’s vehicle, which was carrying reserved EVMs, and damaged two control and ballot units each and three VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines, the EC said in a statement.
“A sector officer was manhandled, 23 people arrested,” the EC said, adding that top district officials rushed to the village, which comes under Basavana Bagewadi Assembly segment.
Police sources said the villagers’ “action” came after “rumours” that officials were “changing” the EVMs and VVPATs.
Meanwhile, in Padmanabhanagar constituency here, some youth armed with sticks attacked their political rivals in a polling booth at Papaiah Garden. They went on a rampage in which a few women standing in queue to vote were injured, the sources said.
In another incident at Sanjeevarayanakote in Ballari district, some Congress and BJP workers came to blows.
(With excerpts from agencies)
