Karnataka Elections 2023: Violent incidents reported in at least 3 places

Violent incidents were reported from at least three places during polling to the Karnataka Assembly elections on Wednesday, police sources said.

At Masabinal village in Basavana Bagewadi taluk of Vijayapura district, several angry villagers destroyed some electronic voting machines, VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines and damaged the vehicles of polling officers, after rumours that the officials were changing the EVMs and VVPATs.

In Padmanabhanagar constituency in Bengaluru, some youth armed with sticks attacked their political rivals in a polling booth at Papaiah Garden. They went on a rampage in which a few women who were standing in queue to vote sustained injuries, the sources said.

Voting for the high-stakes Assembly elections in Karnataka began early on Wednesday, in a state where the ruling BJP is eyeing to script history by retaining its southern citadel while a combative Congress eyes a comeback ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Polling is being held for 224 seats in what is being seen mainly as a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular) The electoral fate of top guns-Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Congress veterans Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy among others will be sealed during the day-long exercise. Counting of polled votes will be taken up on May 13.

The voting that began at 7 am amid tight security will go on till 6 in the evening.

A total of 5,31,33,054 electors are eligible to cast their vote 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.

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 tighten the grip on its southern stronghold, the Congress is seeking to wrest power to give the party the much-needed elbow room and momentum to position itself as the main opposition player in the 2024 parliamentary polls.

Also what needs to be seen is, whether the JD (S) 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.