New Delhi: Elections to the 224-member Karnataka Legislative Assembly will be held on 10 May, and results counted on 13 May, the Election Commission of India announced Wednesday.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said there were a total of 5.21crore voters in the state, including 16,976 voters who were above 100 years of age. There are 12.15 lakh voters above 80, he added. Kumar also said the number of first-time voters have increased by 9.17 lakhs since 2018-19.
Kumar said over 58,000 polling stations would be set up across the state. “There will be 240 model polling stations which will be eco-friendly with green booths. 100 booths will be managed purely by people with disability,” Kumar said.
Of the 224 total seats, 36 are reserved for scheduled castes and 15 for scheduled tribes, he said.
The poll body chief also informed of a multi-pronged surveillance strategy in all sensitive booths, from web-casting to micro observers.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2019, following the collapse of the coalition government of the Congress and the JD(S) – formed after the 2018 state polls.
Several rebel MLAs from the Congress-JD(S) alliance then switched camp to BJP, and won by-elections from the party platform.
The BJP at present has nearly 120 MLAs in the Assembly, while the Congress has 70-odd and the JD(S) 28.
During its four-year tenure, the BJP changed chief ministers once – B.S. Yediyurappa resigned in July 2021 and was replaced by Basavaraj Bommai.
The BJP’s reign has been beset with corruption charges, the latest being that of bribery against its Channagiri legislator Madal Virupakshappa, who was arrested earlier this week.
His son Prashanth, an administrative services officer, was arrested by the state Lokayukta on 3 March while accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh from a private contractor. It is alleged Prashanth was receiving the bribe on behalf of his father.
The Congress released its first list of 124 candidates this week, with former chief minister Siddaramaiah contesting this time from Varuna, Mysuru. The 75-year-old is currently an MLA from Badami.
Other significant candidates on that list are state unit chief D.K. Shivakumar, former Union minister and seven-time MP K.H. Muniyappa, and H. Nagesh, a former minister in B.S. Yediyurappa’s cabinet, who joined the Congress in January.
There is also Shyamnur Shivashankarappa from Davangere south, a 91-year-old Lingayat leader whose support the party seeks to consolidate Lingayat voters.
On the other hand, the JD-S has released a list of 93 candidates.
The BJP will begin the process of choosing candidates in the coming days, Chief Minister Bommai said Monday. He said the BJP’s poll manifesto will be “praja pranalike” (a people’s manifesto).
The BJP has set a target of winning at least 150 of the total 224 seats.
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