Bengaluru: The D-day is here! After a three-month-long bitter and acrimonious campaign, Karnataka is voting to elect a new Assembly in a three-cornered contest on Saturday.
The polling began at 58,546 polling stations each, equipped with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs). Polling for 222 seats will conclude at 6 pm.
A total of 2,654 candidates are in the fray and 4.96-crore electorate, including 2.44 crore women, will cast their votes. Over 15 lakh people are first-time voters in the 18-19 age group.
Tight security is in place to ensure smooth and peaceful polling across the 224 assembly constituencies spread across 30 districts.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded 223 candidates, while Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) have fielded 222 and 201 seats respectively.
Out of the 224 seats, 36 of them are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), while 15 of them are for Scheduled Tribes (STs).
While the ruling Congress and the BJP are the main contenders for power, former prime minister HD Deve Gowda’s JD(S) is expected to be the dark horse to look out for.
However, all three parties are fingers crossed as no party in Karnataka has won a second successive term in office since 1985 when the Janata Dal under Ramakrishna Hegde had retained power.
The Congress is aiming at retaining the only large state it rules after Punjab, while the BJP is striving to form its government in Karnataka, which party president Amit Shah said will be its “gateway to south”, for a second time.
The BJP had ruled the state between 2008 and 2013, the only time it did so, but its tenure was marred by intra-party feuds and allegations of corruption. One of its three chief ministers and its current CM candidate BS Yeddyurappa was in jail over corruption charges