After a high voltage campaign, it is now time for the mega battle of ballots in Karnataka, with the state all set to elect its representatives to the 224-member Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
With the stakes being high in this election, the major political parties in contention – the BJP, Congress and JD(S) – and their candidates have made a strong pitch seeking to boost their prospects at the hustings.
A total of 5,31,33,054 electors are eligible to cast their votes in 58,545 polling stations across the state, where 2,615 candidates are in the fray. Among the electors, 2,67,28,053 are male, 2,64,00,074 female and 4,927 “others”, while among the candidates 2,430 are male, 184 female and one from third gender. As many as 11,71,558 are young voters, while 5,71,281 are persons with disabilities (PWDs) and 12,15,920 are aged above 80. Around 4 lakh polling personnel are engaged in the poll process.
While the ruling BJP, riding on the Modi juggernaut, wants to break the 38-year jinx — the State has never voted the incumbent party to power since 1985 — and retain its southern citadel, the Congress is seeking to wrest power to give the party much-needed elbow room and momentum to position itself as the main opposition player in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Also what needs to be watched out for, is whether former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular), will emerge as a “kingmaker” or a “king” by holding the key for government formation, in the event of a hung verdict, as it has done in the past.
A total of 75,603 Ballot Units (BU), 70,300 Control Units (CU) and 76,202 voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) are slated to be used during voting.
According to poll officials, elaborate security arrangements have been made across the state for the smooth conduct of elections and forces have been deployed from neighbouring states as well.
As many as 84,119 State Police Officers and 58,500 CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces ) police in 650 CoYs (companies) are on Law & Order and security duty on poll day across the state.
‘Critical Polling Stations’ are covered by one or more of the measures like Micro Observers, Webcasting and CCTVs to keep a watch on the polling process as force multipliers.
In a bid to check apathy among voters, the Election Commission has come up with an out-of-the-box idea by holding the Karnataka assembly poll in the middle of the week to prevent people planning an outing by clubbing the poll-day holiday with the weekend break.
Voter apathy is a term now used by the poll panel to describe the tendency among the electorate to stay indoors on voting day rather than going to the polling station to exercise their franchise.
