Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, 2018
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All 224 seats in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly
113 seats needed for a majority |
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An election will be held in
Karnataka on 12 May 2018 in 222 constituencies out of 224 of the
Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Election has been postponed in one constituency following the death of B.N. Vijay Kumar, Jayanagar BJP candidate and other constituency following seizure of around 10,000 voter identity cards. The counting of votes and announcement of result will take place on 31 May 2018. The two opposition parties,
Bharatiya Janata Party (42 seats)
[1] and
Janta Dal (S) (29 seats),
[1] along with their allies, will take on the incumbent
Indian National Congress(119 seats)
[1], while
Aam Aadmi Party will mark its debut in the state.
[2] The
Bahujan Samaj Party made an alliance with the JD(S) and decided to contest 20 of the 224 seats. The majority of opinion polls have predicted a narrow lead for the Congress, however the BJP is expected to give a tight fight.
Background
The tenure of Karnataka assembly ends on May 28, 2018.
[3]
Organization
The Times of India reported in late February 2018 that the state had fewer
electronic voting machines than the minimum mandated requirement to be stored going into elections for any state assembly. The report stated that only 20 per cent or 11,398 EVMs were in place against the requirement of 56,994 machines, one each for a polling station.
Bharat Electronics Limited, which provides 80 per cent of the machines began supplying during this time.
[4]The District Election Officer for the Bangalore region stated that a "vulnerability mapping exercise" would be conducted to ensure "free and fair polls". He added that 550 Sector teams, each headed by a sector magistrate, a police officer (not below the rank of an
Assistant sub-inspector) and a videographer, were formed, one for every 15 of the 8,274 polling stations in the said region.
[5]
Schedule
The schedule of the election was announced by the
Election Commission of India on 27 March 2018. It announced that polling would be held in a single phase on 12 May and that results would be declared on 15 May.
[6] It also declared that the provisions of the
Model Code of Conduct "came into force with immediate effect" with the said announcement.
[7][8]
| Event | Date | Day |
| Date for nominations | 17 April 2018 | Tuesday |
| Last date for filing nominations | 24 April 2018 | Tuesday |
| Date for scrutiny of nominations | 25 April 2018 | Wednesday |
| Last date for withdrawal of candidatures | 27 April 2018 | Friday |
| Date of poll | 12 May 2018 | Saturday |
| Date of counting | 31 May 2018 | Thursday |
| Date before which the election shall be completed | 31 May 2018 | Thursday |
Controversies
The
Election Commission of India ran into a major embarrassment on 27 March 2018, when Karnataka Congress' social media in-charge, Srivasta, tweeted the dates before they were officially released
[9]. BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted the election dates
[10]. However, both of them got the counting day incorrect in their tweets. Both the tweets were deleted after an outrage on twitter. Amit Malviya later claimed that he got the information from
Times Now, a 24 hour English news channel
[11]. The news was reportedly also shown by a local Kannada news channel. Later it was revealed that even
Times Now got the counting day incorrectly as May 18 2018, instead of May 15 2018.
[12]
On 14 April 2018, the committee said that the media reports were mere speculation and not a leak.
[15]
On 7th May 2018 Economic Times reported that nearly 28% i.e about 391 of all the candidates filed nomination in the upcoming assembly election faces criminal charges which included 254 candidates with serious charges like attempt to murder and crime against woman.This data analysis by non governmental ADR ( Association for democratic reforms)Report is well supported by the data provided by the candidates by their affidavits deposited during their nomination .
[16]
On 8th May 2018, Congress MLA Munirathna's visiting cards and pamphlets were found along with almost 10,000 voter ID cards at a flat in Bengaluru. On 11th May, 2018 he was booked by Election Commission and an FIR was also filed against him for trying to bribe voters and distribute freebies worth Rs 90 lakh.
[17]
On 11th May 2018, media reported a 4-page bribe ledger with details of payouts to various towns and cities in and around Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s constituency Badami. The ledger was recovered at a Badami resort where Congress leaders were staying. and has details of even the names of the voting booths where payments were made. As per the records in the diary, the total payments allegedly made were to the tune of Rs 1.6 Crore.
[18]
Election campaign
The
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) officially began its election campaign on 2 November 2017.
[19] The party spent 85 days covering all the assembly constituencies, culminating in
Bangalore on 4 February 2018, with Prime Minister
Narendra Modi addressing it.
[20] In early March, the party launched a 14-day Protect Bengaluru March travelling across Bangalore aimed at, according to the party, "reviving" and "rebuilding" the city from
Indian National Congress' "criminal neglect".
[21]
In December 2017, the
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, although not part of the election campaign, undertook a task of setting up booth-level committees at 54,261 locations in the state which will be responsible to disseminate information on various programmes of the ruling
Indian National Congress and their implementation. The move was seen as an "extensive outreach programme" preceding the elections.
[22]
Opinion polls
| [hide]Polling firm/Commissioner | Date published | | | | | Lead |
|---|
| BJP | INC | JD(S) | Others |
|---|
| Public TV[23] | 2 January 2018 | 85–95 | 90–95 | 40–45 | 0–6 | 15 |
| TV9-CVoter[24] | 5 January 2018 | 96
35.90% | 102
36.60% | 15
18.80% | 1
8.70% | 6
0.7% |
| CHS[25] | 13 January 2018 | 73–76
36.40% | 77–81
33.20% | 64–66
24.90% | | 5
-3.2% |
| Creative Center for Political and Social Studies[26] | 2 February 2018 | 113 | 85 | 25 | 1 | 28 |
| C-Fore[27] | 26 March 2018 | 70
31.00% | 126
46.00% | 27
16.00% | 1
7.00% | 56
15.0% |
| India Today-Karvy Insights[28] | 13 April 2018 | 78-86
35% | 90-101
37% | 34-43
19% | 2-12
9% | 14
2.0% |
| BTV[29] | 19 April 2018 | 82-87
35% | 94-99
37% | 39-44
19% | 2-6
9% | 12
2.0% |
| Graphnile[30] | 20 April 2018 | 74 | 130 | 20 | | 56 |
| Times Now-VMR[31] | 23 April 2018 | 89
35% | 91
37% | 40
19% | 4
9% | 2
2.0% |
| Jain Lokniti-CSDS[32] | 23 April 2018 | 89-95
35% | 85-91
37% | 32-38
20% | 12
8% | 4
-2.0% |
| C-Fore[33] | 1 May 2018 | 63-73
35% | 118-128
37% | 29-36
20% | 2-7
8% | 55
2.0%
|
| Jan Ki Baat[34] | 4 May 2018 | 102-108
40% | 72-74
38% | 42-44
20% | 2-4
2% | 30
2.0%
|
| ABP News-CSDS[35] | 7 May 2018 | 79-89
33% | 92-102
38% | 34-42
22% | 1-7
7% | 13
5.0%
|
| Flash News - TV 5[36] | 7 May 2018 | 110-120
36-38% | 65-75
33-35% | 38-42
20-22% | 2-6 | 45
3.0%
|
| Graphnile[37] | 7 May 2018 | 67 | 124 | 33 | | 57 |
| Samyuktha TV[38] | 8 May 2018 | 80–90 | 100–110 | 40–45 | 0–6 | 20 |
| Spick Media[39] | 9 May 2018 | 88 | 101 | 31 | 3 | 13 |
| India TV[40] | 9 May 2018 | 85 | 96 | 38 | 4 | 11 |
| News X-CNX[41] | 9 May 2018 | 87 | 90 | 39 | 7 | 3 |
| Average as on 8 May 2018 | 87 | 96 | 36 | 05 | 9 |
Preferred Chief Minister polling
Some opinion pollsters asked voters the party leader they would prefer as Chief Minister –
Siddaramaiah (Indian National Congress),
B. S. Yeddyurappa (Bharatiya Janata Party). or
H. D. Kumaraswamy (Janata Dal (Secular)). Lokniti-CSDS conducted surveys between 10 and 15 January interviewing 878 people. While 34 per cent of the sample wanted Siddaramaiah to remain the chief minister for the next term, 19 per cent chose Kumaraswamy and 14 per cent chose Yeddyurappa.
[42] A poll conducted by CHS in the same month found that Kumaraswamy was the first choice, followed by Yeddyurappa and Siddaramaiah in that order.
[43] C-Fore's survey of a sample size of 22,357 voters across 154 assembly constituencies between 1 and 25 March showed that Siddaramaiah, with 45 per cent, was the most popular choice for Chief Minister, followed by Yeddyurappa at 26 per cent and Kumaraswamy at 13 per cent, while 16 per cent preferred 'others'.
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