Karnataka Election 2023: 72.67 percent voting took place in the Karnataka assembly elections.
Bengaluru:
72.67 percent voting in Karnataka assembly electionsWhich is slightly above the previous polls in 2018. Several pollsters have predicted that the Congress may get an edge in Karnataka, the southern bastion of the BJP, in a hung assembly. Some of them have even predicted that the grand old party may get one. majority on its own.
According to an Election Commission release late night, the total voter turnout, excluding postal ballots and home voting, was 72.67 per cent.
Chikkaballapur district recorded the highest voter turnout of 85.83 percent, followed by Ramanagaram with 84.98 percent.
The counting of votes for Wednesday’s polling for the 224-member assembly will take place on May 13.
“Polling has been largely peaceful in all 224 assembly constituencies of Karnataka with no signs of re-polling in any of the 58,545 polling stations,” the Election Commission (EC) said on Wednesday.
Karnataka recorded a voter turnout of 72.44 per cent in the 2018 assembly elections, which led to a hung assembly, in which the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats, just short of a majority.
While the BJP is riding on the Modi juggernaut to break a 38-year-old electoral tussle where the state has never voted for the ruling party, the Congress is hoping for a morale-boosting victory to give it much-needed elbow room And the pace to establish itself as the main opposition player in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
It is not clear whether the Janata Dal (Secular), led by former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, will emerge as the “kingmaker” or “king” holding the key to forming a government in the event of a hung mandate, as it did in 2019. past. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also fielded candidates in Punjab and Delhi.
To attract people to exercise their voting rights, the Election Commission had taken several initiatives such as theme-based and ethnic polling booths, and pink booths exclusively manned by women.
Theme-based and ethnic polling stations – 737 across the state – added much color to the exercise.
The battle-ready BJP with its well-oiled election machine kicked off its campaign with a stormy campaign by Prime Minister Modi.
The Congress manifesto proposal to ban Bajrang Dal heated up half of the campaign as the BJP and Prime Minister Modi aggressively played up the issue to portray the grand old party as being against Lord Hanuman and the sentiments of Hindus. insisted on.
Talks like ‘venomous snake’, ‘poisonous girl’ and ‘worthless son’ tainted the election campaign as some leaders used intemperate and abusive language.
While Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who hails from Karnataka, compared Modi to a ‘venomous snake’, his son and Congress candidate Priyank Kharge called the prime minister a ‘worthless son’, BJP MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal, former Congress president and MP Told Sonia Gandhi. As a ‘Vishkanya’ (poisonous woman).
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)