The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday, 29 March, announced that polling for the Karnataka Assembly elections will be held on 10 May in a single phase. The poll body added that counting of votes will be held on 13 May and that the election shall be completed 15 May.
Number of voters: The state will have 5.21 crore total electors, 2,62,42,561 male and 2,59,26,319 female. Out of the total electors, voters above the age of 80 are 12.15 lakh and voters above the age of 100 are 16,976.
Meanwhile, persons with disability (PwDs) eligible to vote are 5,60,908, while 4751 voters are trans persons.
Nomination dates: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said that the notification for the elections to the 224-member Assembly will be issued on 13 April, while the last date to file nomination is 20 April.
Kumar added that the nomination papers will be scrutinised on 21 April and 24 April will be the last date for withdrawal of nominations.
When does the current term end? The term of the 224-member Karnataka Assembly ends on 24 May. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) currently rules the state with 119 MLAs and Basavaraj Bommai as the state's chief minister.
Meanwhile, the Congress party has 75 MLAs and its ally Janata Dal (Secular) has 28 seats.
Number of voting booths: Compared to 2018, 200 extra voting booths have been added taking the total to 58,282.
CEC Kumar said the elections have been scheduled on a Wednesday, and not on a Monday or Friday, to encourage greater participation of voters.
Vote-from-home: The ECI has introduced the facility to Vote-from-Home (VFH) for people above 80 years of age and those with disabilities.
Kumar explained that secrecy will be maintained and the entire process will be videographed. "All the political parties will be informed whenever there is a movement for Voting From Home (VFH)," he added.
After Assembly elections were held in 2018, Karnataka had undergone a political storm, with the BJP overthrowing the incumbent Congress-JD(S) government. The upcoming election will be a test for the BJP to retain power and the Congress to return to power in the southern state.
2018 elections and the toppling of the government: Though the BJP had won the most seats, 104, in the 2018 Assembly elections, Congress (80 seats) and JD(S) (37 seats) had formed a coalition government with 120 out of 224 seats.
However, following the 2019 general election, when the BJP-led NDA won 26 out of 28 seats in Karnataka, 14 Congress and 3 JD(S) MLAs submitted their resignations, toppling the alliance government and triggering by-elections in the state.
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