Karnataka Election 2023: Voting tomorrow, all you need to know

Karnataka is set to witness the mega battle of ballots in Karnataka for the 224-member Legislative Assembly polls on Wednesday. The voting is set to take place from 7 am to 6 pm. A total of 5,31,33,054 electors are eligible to cast their votes in 58,545 polling stations across the state, where 2,615 candidates are in the fray. Among the electors, 2,67,28,053 are male, 2,64,00,074 female and 4,927 "others", while among the candidates 2,430 are male, 184 female and one from third gender. 

Around 11,71,558 are young voters, while 5,71,281 are persons with disabilities (PWDs) and 12,15,920 are aged above 80. 

As per a PTI report, almost 4 lakh polling personnel will participate in the poll process. The ruling BJP wants to break a record by eyeing to win as the State has never voted the incumbent party to power since 1985. Meanwhile, the Congress is using all its might to position itself as the main opposition player in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

A total of 75,603 Ballot Units (BU), 70,300 Control Units (CU) and 76,202 voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) will be used during voting. 

According to poll officials, elaborate security arrangements have been made across the state for the smooth conduct of elections and forces have been deployed from neighbouring states as well.

The security arrangements have been made tighter for the smooth functioning of elections and forces are deployed from neighbouring states as well, PTI quoted poll officials as saying. 

As many as 84,119 State Police Officers and 58,500 CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces ) police in 650 CoYs (companies) are on Law & Order and security duty on poll day across the state. '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 2018, Karnataka had recorded a voter turnout of 72.36 per cent in the Assembly polls. 

"Date of the poll has been kept on a Wednesday. Had it been on a Monday, it would have come with a holiday of Saturday and Sunday. And had it been on a Tuesday, take a day's off and we can go out ... Wednesday is a little difficult," Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told reporters while announcing the date of Karnataka poll on March 29. Counting of votes is on May 13.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai (Shiggaon), Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah (Varuna), JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy (Channapatna), state Congress President D K Shivakumar (Kanakapura) are the top runners for the election. 

All political parties are said to be in sync with the slogan, "A government with full majority".

In the 2018 Assembly elections, BJP had emerged as the single largest party by winning 104 seats, followed by Congress 80, JD(S) 37, and one each independent, from BSP and Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP). Karnataka has never seen a party that has a clear majority before. First the Congress and JD(S) tried forging an alliance but B S Yediyurappa of BJP eventually formed the government.

Post that, the Congress-JD(S) alliance formed the government with Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister, but it didn’t last for long as it collapsed in 14 months, 17 legislators including independents resigned and came out of the ruling coalition and defected to BJP. 

Then BJP came back to power and, in the bypolls held subsequently in 2019, the ruling party swept 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, Independent two, Speaker one and vacant six (following deaths and resignation to join other parties ahead of polls).