The Election Commission of India on Wednesday announced the dates of the Karnataka Assembly election. The Election Commission officials held a press conference at Plenary Hall, Vigyan Bjawan in Delhi on Wednesday. Election Commission has announced the dates. Polls will take place on 10th May & results will be announced on 13th May.
Seats
Karnataka has a total of 224 Assembly seats. The state has sixth-highest assembly seats in the country. Uttar Pradesh has the highest assembly seats at 403.
There are 51 reserved seats in Karnataka that are politically significant. Political experts have opined that parties that have won more reserved seats have by default come to power in the southern state.
Of the 51 reserved seats, 15 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 36 for Scheduled Castes (SC).
Pervious Election
At present, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power in the southern state. The BJP has 119 MLAs in Karnataka while Congress has 75 and its ally JD(S) has 28 seats.
In the previous assembly election in Karnataka (2018), the Congress tally dropped by eight seats to touch 19 while BJP improved its score by 15 and reached 23. In election in 2018, the BJP narrowly lost, securing 105 seats in the 224-member legislative assembly but finished a close runner-up in 65 seats. Later, its tally swelled to 123 seats as rebel MLAs from JD (S) and Congress coalition joined the BJP in 2019.
In the 2018 Assembly polls, Congress won 78 seats while JDS managed to get 37 seats. JDS in alliance with Congress formed a government and HD Kumaraswamy was appointed as the chief minister. However, the JDS-Congress government fell a year later and BJP formed the government.
Announcement of Candidates
After the announcement of the Karnataka poll dates, the Congress party is likely to finalise the names of the remaining candidates for the upcoming election. Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar and other party workers will hold a screening committee meeting in Bengaluru to finalise 100 candidates.
The Karnataka Congress already announced tickets to six women candidates and eight minority candidates in the first list of 124 seats announced earlier in the month.
The names of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and State party president DK Shivakumar are included in the first list of 124 candidates. Siddaramaiah will be contesting from the Varuna constituency while DK Shivakumar would be the candidate from Kanakapura.
Key Candidates List
Lets take a look at some of the key candidates of Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023.
- Kumaraswamy, the son of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, is a former chief minister of Karnataka and a leader of the Janata Dal Secular party. In the 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, JDS formed an alliance with the Indian National Congress INC and Kumaraswamy became the chief minister. However, he resigned after 14 months following a revolt by his own party MLAs.
- Yediyurappa is a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP and was the chief minister of Karnataka from 2019 until his resignation in July 2021. He was instrumental in leading the BJP to a victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections in Karnataka, where the party won 25 out of 28 seats.
- Bommai is the current chief minister of Karnataka and a member of the BJP.
Comments by Minister on Election
- Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai has declared that his party will come to power in the 2023 Karnataka polls. On Tuesday, he said, “The party and the government are absolutely ready for the elections. Preparations are already underway. We are just waiting for the ECI to announce the dates. We are sure to come back to power with huge majority”
- We are winning this election. The people of are fed up with the 40% government, the BJP is playing caste politics, and unemployment is at its highest. This time it is going to be Congress all the way,” Congress leader Priyank Kharge said.
- Congress will win the Karnataka elections and form government in the state. This is the reason why all top ministers of the Modi govt are visiting the state. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other senior leaders of the party will visit the state: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge
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