Mumbai, March 27: The Election Commission of India (ECI), today, announced the dates for Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018. The Karnataka polls will take place on May 12, and the votes will be counted on May 15.

Om Prakash Rawat, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), today, announced that the Karnataka Assembly Elections will take place in a single-phase manner only. The last date to file nominations for Karnataka Polls 2018 will be April 24. If the candidates want to withdraw their nominations, the deadline for the same is set for April 27.

As the highly-electrifying electoral campaigns in the state pick up we take a look at what happened in Karnataka during the last Assembly Elections that were held in 2013.

A lot of political parties contested the elections, 59 to be precise; with Independents being the 60th stakeholder. The five major political parties that sparred in the elections were Congress, BJP, Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), B.S. Yeddyurappa’s Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP), and B. Sriramulu’s Badavara Shramikara Raitara Congress Party (BSRCP).

We take a look at the Karnataka Election Results 2013 in a nutshell:

Sr. No# 1 2 3 4
Political Parties Indian National Congress+ (INC) Janata Dal-Secular+ (JDS) Bharatiya Janata Party+ (BJP) Others/Independents
Seats Won (2013) 122 40 40 22
Seats Before (2008) 80 28 110 06
Seat Change +(42) +(12) -(70) -(16)
Vote Share

(in Percent)

 37% 20% 20% 23%
Vote Swing

(in Percent)

 + (1.8%) + (1.1%) - (13.9%) -

The Karnataka Legislative Assembly comprises of 224 seats. For a party to form the government in the House, it needs a total of 113 seats for a majority.

The Karnataka Assembly Elections 2013 was carried out in a single-phase manner only on May 5. There were a total of 50,446 polling stations across the state. Karnataka electorate at that time comprised of 4.36 crore voters, in which the voter turnout was 70.23%. The results for the same were declared on May 8.

It was Indian National Congress (Congress) that won the fiercely-contested 2013 State Assembly Elections. The Congress party fought the elections under the leadership of Siddaramaiah, who eventually went on to become the Chief Minister of Karnataka. The then incumbent government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced a defeat as the party slipped to the third position, in terms of votes, when the election’s results came out.

With a whopping number of seats (122) under its belt, the Congress returned to the power in the state, by itself, after a gap of 9 years.

One of the major reason for BJP’s defeat in the election was the infighting amongst prominent party leaders. Also, a few scams broke out during the BJP’s tenure in power, which saw the then chief minister BS Yeddyurappa resign in the year 2012. In its five years of rule, the party had to appoint three chief ministers.

The major political parties have already begun their high-profile campaigns in the state. Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and BJP’s Amit Shah are on the forefront and have been taking jibes at each other, time and again. It will be a fascinating battle between the two major national parties, where Congress would be looking to lay a foundation for their 2019 Lok Sabha Elections’ preparations with a victory, whereas the BJP would be looking to set their foot in a southern state before the electoral battle in 2019.

With the bugles already blown and dates being announced for the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018, it will be interesting to see if the Congress is able to save its face in the political arena, or will the BJP regain power in the state?Stay tuned with us for all the latest updates about the 2018 Karnataka Polls.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 27, 2018 11:50 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).