- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
After much political effervescence in the tightly-contested assembly elections in politically crucial state of Karnataka, all eyes are on the counting of votes on Saturday (13) when the results will be announced.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Karnataka recorded a 73.19 per cent voter turnout in the May 10 assembly elections, the highest-ever voter turnout in the southern state.
Polling was held across 58,545 polling stations to elect the members in the 224-seat Karnataka Legislative Assembly. The majority mark needed to form the government is 113.
Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai exuded confidence in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) return to power in Karnataka.
“There is no chance of a hung Assembly, we are going to form the government comfortably. Let him (DK Shivakumar) be happy with his 141 seats till tomorrow. We will have a legislature party meeting to decide the Chief Ministerial face,” Bommai told reporters on Friday (12).
A day before the counting of votes for the Karnataka elections, Bommai on Friday held a key meeting with top BJP leaders from the state.
The meeting was held at the residence of former chief minister of Karnataka, BS Yediyurappa in Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar on Friday held a meeting with party president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in the state capital.
“Exit polls have their own theory. We do not go by those samples, my sample size is too high and in that, we will have a comfortable majority. I do not know about JDS, let them take their own call. I do not have any backup plan, my only plan is that the Congress party will come to power,” told ANI.
Congress general secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh said that BJP’s defeat in Karnataka will open Delhi’s door for the Congress in 2024.
“Congress’s victory in Karnataka is prime minister Narendra Modi’s defeat because no one campaigned in Karnataka except him. After (BJP’s) Karnataka’s defeat, Delhi’s door is open for Congress in 2024. During the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ (Unite India March), we were there for 27 days in Karnataka and visited seven districts. We do not have any doubt. We will get majority votes. We have promised five guarantees in our manifesto and because of these guarantees Congress is guaranteed to win,” said Ramesh.
He also ruled out the possibility of a coalition government in Karnataka with the Janata Dal (Secular).
“I am absolutely sure that JDS will disintegrate… This time I do not think that there is any scope for a coalition government with JDS,” added the Congress veteran.
The Janata Dal (Secular) national spokesperson Tanveer Ahmed on Friday said that they have already decided which party they would support in forming the government after the results are declared.
Speaking to ANI, Ahmed said, “We have already decided with whom we are going to form the government. We will announce it to the public when the appropriate time comes.”
Yediyurappa on Thursday (11) expressed confidence that the Bharatiya Janata Party would secure an absolute majority and return to power for a second term to form government in the southern state.
Speaking to ANI, Yediyurappa said, “I am 100 per cent confident that the BJP will secure an absolute majority and form the government”.
Yeddyurappa’s response came after exit polls predicted Congress’s edge over the BJP in Karnataka polls.
The BJP leader refuted any possibility of a hung assembly.
In the 2018 assembly elections, the BJP emerged as the single-largest party by winning 104 seats. Congress had bagged 80 seats and the JDS 37 seats. Bahujan Samaj Party and the Karnataka Pragyavantha Janata Party (KPJP) managed get one seat each. There was also an independent member.
The Karnataka assembly has 224 seats and a party/alliance has to achieve the majority mark of 113 to form government.
(ANI)
