Bengaluru: The Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of polling on Wednesday. The fate of 2,163 candidates will be sealed in the ballot boxes on the day.
Among 2,613 candidates, 2,427 are men and 185 are women. One candidate is in the others' category.
There are 5,30,85,566 crore registered voters in the state -- 2,66,82,156 male voters and 2,63,98,483 female voters. Officials said 4,927 voters belong to the other category.
Those, who are in essential services, will cast their vote through postal ballot. Ruling BJP has fielded its candidates in all 224 Assembly seats. Opposition Congress party has fielded 223 candidates. It has not fielded a candidate in the Melukote seat.
The JD(S) party, hoping to become a kingmaker, has fielded 207 candidates and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is contesting 209 seats. BSP is contesting in 133 seats. The CPI(M) has fielded candidates on four seats while the NPP is contesting from two seats.
A total of 693 candidates are from registered parties and 918 are independent candidates. The state witnessed high-voltage campaigning from major parties -- Congress, JD(S) and the BJP in particular.
The BJP is seeking votes on the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and he has promised that he will depute the whole of New Delhi into the service of Karnataka state. Congress is banking on the anti-incumbency factor and announced major freebies in the form of five guarantees.
The 89-year-old former PM, H.D. Deve Gowda campaigned on par with young national leaders, and has appealed to the voters to back JD(S) and make his son the chief minister.
The Karnataka State Election Commission has made eloborate arrangements for the May 10 Assembly elections in the state. To ensure no untoward incidents take place, the commission is deputing 1.56 lakh police personnel across the state.
As many as 84,119 police officers from the state have been deputed and the rest are roped in from the neighbouring states.
According to a statement, 304 deputy superintendents of police (Dy SP), 991 inspectors, 20,601 sub-inspectors, and 650 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) would be deputed for the polling duty in the state.
The 650 CAPF companies would include 101 from the Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force (108), Central Industrial Security Force (75), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (70), Sashastra Seema Bal (75), Railway Protection Force (35), and 186 of the Special Armed Police.
In Bengaluru 16,000 police personnel have been deputed for election duties. They will be deployed to 7,916 polling booths and 1,907 hyper sensitive polling booths.
The BJP, which is struggling to retain power in Karnataka, has made an all-out effort in its election campaigning.
With its efforts and outreach of the national as well as top state-level leaders, the saffron party has made the fight in the state intense.
According to Karnataka BJP, the party has conducted 9,125 rallies and 1,377 roadshows in the state.
BJP leaders, during the campaigning, paid visit to 311 temples and mutts. The party had also organised 3,166 public campaigns and 9,077 public meetings.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took part in 19 public rallies and 09 roadshows, while Union Home Minister Amit Shah had taken part in 16 rallies and conducted 15 roadshows in the state.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had addressed nine public rallies and held three roadshows in the state. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai took part in 40 roadshows and former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa had addressed 44 public rallies.
Similarly, BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal had addressed 41 conventions and National General Secretary C.T. Ravi had addressed 16 rallies in the last one month.
In run up for the crucial Karnataka Assembly polls, the Congress campaigned aggressively in the southern state with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra holding 85 public meetings and road shows.
Kharge, who was elected as the party President last year, camped in Karnataka, his home state, from April 15 onwards and addressed 36 public meetings, including one with former party chief Sonia Gandhi in Hubballi.
Kharge, 81, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, addressed four press conferences in the state ahead of the polling in the state.
Meanwhile, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, who was disqualified as a Lok Sabha in March this year following conviction in the defamation case by a Gujarat court, also addressed 23 public meetings and road shows in the state and highlighted the alleged corruption under the BJP government in the southern state.
He kicked off his Karnataka campaigning from Kolar, where he made the Modi surname remark on April 13, 2019 while campaigning for party candidate and former Union minister K.H. Muniyappa, who eventually lost to BJP candidate S. Muniswamy as the BJP won 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka.
Besides Rahul Gandhi, his sister and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi too addressed 26 public meetings and road shows in the state and targeted the ruling BJP government at the centre and in the state.
During her campaigning she also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on several occasions by highlighting the alleged corruption in the state. According to party leaders, the Congress' five guarantees announced in its manifesto were also highlighted by all the leaders in the state. The Congress has announced Gruha Jyothi (200 units of free electricity), Gruha Lakshmi Rs 2,000 monthly to every woman head of the family, Anna Bhagya-10 kg of food grains of their choice (among rice, ragi, jowar, millet) to every person in a BPL family, and free travel to all women in regular Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses.
Overall, the Congress party had organised 173 public rallies and 55 roadshows for the May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections.
Counting of votes will be done on May 13, 2023 and the result of the Karnataka 2023 elections will be announced on the same day.
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