Bengaluru: After a month-long campaign by all the political players in the state, Karnataka is gearing up for voting day on Wednesday. Voters are expected to queue up before the polling booths to cast their votes in favour of their respective candidates to the 224-member Legislative Assembly. A total of 2,615 candidates are in the fray.
Poll officials cast their vote through postal ballot on Tuesday, a day ahead of the state elections. The voting will kickstart at 7 am Wednesday and will continue till 6 pm. 51055172 voters are expected to vote in the 58,545 polling stations spread across the state. Among the voters, 25801408 are male, 25248925 female and 4839 "others". Among the candidates 2,430 are male, 184 female and one from third gender. A total of 11,71,558 are young voters, 5,71,281 are persons with disabilities (PWDs) and 12,15,920 are aged above 80.
Security has been beefed up across the state for the smooth conduct of elections. Around 8,500 police officers and staff and home guards have been deployed from neighbouring states as well. Over 1.5 lakh police and CRPF have been deployed. A total of 84,119 personnel including 304 DySPs, 991 Inspectors, 2,610 PSIs, 5,803 ASIs, 46,421 HCs and 27,990 PC Home Guards have been deployed for election duty.
A total of 75,603 Ballot Units (BU), 70,300 Control Units (CU) and 76,202 voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) are slated to be used during voting. 'Critical Polling Stations' are covered by one or more of the measures like Micro Observers, Webcasting and CCTVs to keep a watch on the polling process as force multipliers.
In a first the Election Commission has allowed those above 80 years of age and those with more than 40 percent disabilities to vote from home. Out of 99,529 voters got registered to vote from home, over 94,931 voters cast their votes. Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday requested the people of Karnataka to vote for development, progress and efficient governance.
Expressing his confidence, CM Bommai said that the people of Karnataka have already decided to vote for BJP. "I once again request the entire people of Karnataka to vote for development, vote for progress and vote to make Karnataka a strong vibrant, economic, social, educational and health-wise very strong state and also vote for efficient governance", he said.
Further reacting to the Congress party's allegations on the health system in the state, the CM said, "Whatever allegations made by Congress regarding health and other sectors are all false and without proof. They have filed a complaint in Lokayukta, so let Lokayukta enquire about this."
Congress leader Siddaramaiah expressed confidence that the people of Karnataka would vote for the Congress and remove the BJP government. "I think people will change the current govt and will bring the Congress govt. People are very enthusiastic to vote for Congress party," said former Karnataka CM, Siddaramaiah while speaking to media on Tuesday.
Read: Karnataka Assembly polls: Glance at data around candidates as state votes on Wednesday
