Karnataka election 2023 exit poll results: Check time, date and other details here
Karnataka went to the polls today as voting began at 7 am and will go on till 6 in the evening. As soon as the polling is declared closed, agencies like CVoter, Lokniti-CSDS, Axis My India and Today’s Chanakya are expected to release their exit poll results on TV channels. Polling is being held for 224 seats in the state where the stakes are high for both the BJP and the Congress. The ruling BJP is eyeing to script history while a combative Congress eyes a comeback ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
About 2% voter turnout was recorded till 3 pm. There are more than 5.3 crore registered electors in the state with almost equal numbers of men (2.66 crore) and women (2.63 crore). Votes will be counted on May 13.
Karnataka has never voted an incumbent party to power since 1985. Ruling BJP, riding on the Modi juggernaut, wants to break the 38-year jinx and tighten the grip on its southern stronghold. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed 19 public meetings and held six roadshows. Amit Shah held 16 public rallies and 14 roadshows. BJP chief JP Nadda held 10 public meetings and 16 roadshows.
Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, held various roadshows, rallies and elections campaigns.
A total of 5,31,33,054 electors are eligible to cast their vote in 58,545 polling stations across the state, where 2,615 candidates are in the fray, in what is being seen mainly as a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular)
In the 2018 Karnataka polls, the voter turnout was 72.36 per cent. In the outgoing Assembly, BJP had 116 MLAs, Congress at 69 and JD(S) 29.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has appealed to voters to come out in large numbers to exercise their franchise. He urged the young and urban voters and participate actively in the “festival of democracy, defeating the prevalent trend of urban apathy in the state”. (With Agency Inputs)
