Karnataka Assembly polls to be held on May 10, counting of votes on May 13

In a press conference, the chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar, said, “There are 224 Assembly constituencies of which 36 are reserved for the SCs and 15 for the STs. The total electorates in the state are 5,21,73,579 crores of which males are 2.62 crores and females are 2.59 crores. The total number of 80 plus electors is 12.15 lakhs. It is an increase of 32 % from 2018. It also includes 16,976 proud electors who are 100 plus. The number of persons with disabilities (PWDs) has increased to 5.55 lakhs. This is an increase of close to 150 %.”

ECI further noted that the“Vote from Home” option is available for 80+ citizens and people with disabilities.

As per the latest announcement, the Gazette notification for the upcoming Karnataka assembly elections is scheduled to be issued on April 13. The last date for filing nominations by candidates is April 20, and the scrutiny of nominations will be held on April 21. 

The deadline for the withdrawal of candidature has been set for April 24.

He said that the first-time voters have increased from 2018-19 by 9.17 lakhs in Karnataka.”All young voters who are turning 18 years of age by April 1, will be able to vote in the Karnataka Assembly elections,” he said.

ECI further informed that “There are 58,282 polling stations in Karnataka of which 20,866 are urban. The average number of electors per polling station comes to 883. On all the sensitive booths which have been identified, we take four to five measures. Either there would CAPF, or web-casting or a micro-observer. With the combination of all of these, we tend to put more vigour and vigil on the sensitive booths.”

Furthermore, Karnataka is the only state where the Bharatiya Janata Party has managed to secure power. In the 2018 state assembly election, BJP emerged as the single-largest party by winning 104 seats out of 224, while the Congress won 80 seats and the Janata Dal (Secular) won 37 seats.

After the election results, Congress and JD(S) formed a coalition government and HD Kumaraswamy of JD(S) took the oath as the chief minister of the state.

(With inputs from ANI)