Bengaluru: After a high-octane campaign marked by a plummeting level of public discourse, Karnataka goes to polls today with the BJP looking to script history to retain its southern citadel while a combative Congress eyeing a comeback.
The voting for the 224 Assembly constituencies will take place from 7 am to 6 pm amid tight security arrangements and the ballots will be counted on Saturday. A total of 2,615 candidates are in the fray. As many as 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.
The Election Commission claimed that enforcement agencies in Karnataka seized over Rs 375 crore worth of liquor, drugs and "inducements' which was 4.5 times more than what was recovered during the last assembly election in the state in 2018.
The electoral pitch
With the stakes being high in the mega battle of ballots, the major political parties in contention--the BJP, Congress and JD(S)--have made a strong pitch to boost their electoral prospects. The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), which is in power in Punjab and Delhi, has also fielded candidates.
While the ruling BJP, riding on the Modi juggernaut, wants to break a 38-year-old jinx -- Karnataka has never voted the incumbent party to power since 1985, the Congress is hoping for a morale booster victory to give it a much-needed elbow room and momentum to position itself as the main opposition player in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
"A government with full majority" seemed to be the favourite slogan for the leaders of all the political parties during the campaigning that ended on Monday, as they stressed on getting a clear mandate to form a strong and stable government unlike what happened after the 2018 Assembly polls.
The battle-ready BJP with its well-oiled election machine ran its campaign with a blitzkrieg by Prime Minister Modi. It was clear the double-engine Sarkar' sought to heavily bank on Modi's appeal to bolster its campaign, shore up its prospects and fight "anti-incumbency". Also what needs to be watched out for is whether former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) will emerge as a "kingmaker" or a "king" by holding the key to government formation, in the event of a hung verdict, as it has done in the past.
The Congress manifesto proposing to ban the Bajrang Dal heated up the later half of the campaign as the BJP and Prime Minister Modi aggressively latched on to the issue to portray the grand old party as being against Lord Hanuman and the sentiments of Hindus. Modi also likened the proposed ban to locking up Hanuman itself. He also made it a point to chant 'Jai Bajrang Bali' in all his speeches after the Congress released its manifesto.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai (Shiggaon), Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah (Varuna), JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy (Channapatna) and state Congress President D K Shivakumar (Kanakapura) are the among the top candidates in the fray. Other than Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy, Jagdish Shettar (Hubli-Dharwad Central) is the other former CM, who is in the fray. Shettar had recently joined Congress, quitting BJP.
Temple visits
Bommai and Shivakumar also visited Anjaneya(Hanuman) temples on Tuesday. While Bommai visited the shrine at Vijayanagara in Hubballi and chanted "Hanuman Chalisa" with devotees there, Shivakumar paid a visit to the temple at KR Market in Bengaluru and offered prayers. Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar along with a large number of Congress leaders and supporters also paid their obeisance to Goddess Chamundeshwari, the deity of Mysuru city.
Along with flowers, fruits, "Thamboolam", incense sticks and purified butter, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar presented a brief copy of the Congress' election manifesto, which highlighted the party's five "guarantees" in the event of it coming to power.
Barbs that were traded
Barbs like 'venomous snake', 'Vishakanya' and 'Nalayak beta' vitiated the poll campaign as some leaders used intemperate and abusive language. While Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who hails from Karnataka, likened Modi to a 'venomous snake' and his son and Congress candidate Priyank Kharge called the prime minister a "nalayak beta", BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal described former Congress president and MP Sonia Gandhi as a 'Vishakanya' (venomous woman).
Recent past
In the 2018 elections, the BJP had emerged as the single largest party by winning 104 seats, followed by Congress 80, JD(S) 37, and an independent, BSP and Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party(one each). With no party having a clear majority and Congress and JD(S) making a bid to forge an alliance, BJP stalwart B S Yediyurappa staked claim and formed the government. However, it had to resign within three days ahead of the trust vote, unable to muster numbers.
Subsequently, the Congress-JD(S) alliance formed the government with Kumaraswamy as chief minister, but the wobbly government collapsed in 14 months, as 17 legislators including independents resigned and came out of the ruling coalition, and defected to BJP. This was followed by BJP coming back to power and, in the bypolls held subsequently in 2019, the ruling party dominated by winning 12 out of 15 seats.
In the outgoing Assembly, the ruling BJP has 116 MLAs, followed by the Congress 69, JD(S) 29, BSP one, Independents two, Speaker one and vacant six.
Read: Karnataka Assembly polls: Glance at data around candidates as state votes on Wednesday
