As per the announcement by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India, Rajiv Kumar, the assembly elections in Karnataka will be held on May 10 and the results will be announced on May 13.
There shall be all 224 constituencies going to polls in a single go and the election battle will be majorly fought between the Congress, BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) party.
Karnataka Assembly Elections
The CEC also announced that the persons with disabilities (Pwd) and senior citizens who are above 80 will be able to vote from home in forthcoming Karnataka assembly elections.
According to the election commission, there are 12.15 lakhs voters who are above 80 and 5.55 lakhs PwD voters in the poll bound state.
Kumar also said that there are 9.17 lakhs first time voters in Karnataka and over 1.25 lakhs people who are above 17 have applied through the Advance Application Facility.
A total of 41,000 applicants will turn 18 by April 1 and they will be eligible to vote in the assembly elections.
With an average number of voters per polling station at 883, as many as 58, 282 polling stations across 224 assembly constituencies shall be set up by the Election Commission of India.
There shall be web casting facility in half of the polling stations and as many as 1320 polling stations will be managed by women officials for enhanced voter experience.
Political Developments
Throwing a little bit of light on the political developments in Karnataka for the unaware, it was in the July 2019 that the coalition government collapsed due to resignations by several members of INC and JD(S) in the assembly.
Post this, Bharatiya Janata Party formed the state government, with B. S. Yediyurappa becoming Chief Minister, who in turn remained CM till 26 July 2021, after resignation of whom Basavaraj Bommai was sworn in as the new Chief Minister on 28 July 2021.
Other developments include BJP leader H.D. Thammaiah joining Congress along with his supporters on 19 February 2023.
Giving another bolt to the BJP, BJP MLC Puttanna joined INC on 9 March 2023.