The Election Commission of India stated on Wednesday that the Karnataka Assembly election will take place on May 10 and that the results will be made public on May 13.
There will be elections in each of the 224 assembly constituencies. Starting today, the model code of conduct for elections will be used (March 29).
On March 25, the Congress party unveiled its initial list of 124 candidates. Siddaramaiah, the former chief minister of Karnataka, will run from the Varuna district, and DK Shivakumar, the president of the Karnataka Congress, will run from the Kanakapura district.
Siddaramaiah declared that this would be his final election and that he would no again participate in political politics. He claimed that he will run from the Varuna constituency because he is a native son of that area. He further said, "But Kolar's residents have loved me and requested me to enter the competition from their city as well. Therefore I requested that a ticket also be obtained from Kolar from the party high command."
The Aam Aadmi Party earlier on March 20 also unveiled its initial list of 80 candidates. The party has said that it will run candidates in each of the state's 224 Assembly districts.
The state's 224 seats are up for election, and the state's chief minister, Basavaraj Bommai, has declared he will return to work once the results are known. The ruling BJP has set a goal of capturing at least 150 of those seats. Presently, the BJP holds 119 seats in the legislature, compared to the Congress's 75 and its ally JD(S) 28.
The election in Karnataka would be the first to be held following Rahul Gandhi's expulsion from the Lok Sabha as a result of his conviction in a criminal defamation case, which led to protests from the grand old party from Sansad to Sadak.
Rahul Gandhi will launch his campaign in Karnataka from the same location in the Kolar district where he made the remark about the Modi surname in 2019 for which he was jailed by a Surat court a week ago. This is a defiant message to the BJP.
Ultimately, the election will be a test for PM Modi and his party's popularity as well as for the Congress's capacity to emerge from its worst moments following a string of poll losses and the resignation of several of its senior leaders. Elections in Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana will follow Karnataka's, laying the stage for PM Modi's third consecutive term bid in 2014.
