With the counting of votes likely to begin shortly for the predicting that it would win majority. Most of the others projected that the Congress would hover around the halfway mark in the 224-member House. According to the projections, the JD(S) may get 20-odd seats. The party won 37 seats in the 2018 elections.
Lone Congress Muslim woman candidate fought for girls’ right to wear hijab, faces BJP challenge
With barely 15 minutes remaining for the Election Commission (EC)-stipulated 10 pm deadline for a day’s campaign, Kaneez Fathima, the Congress MLA and candidate for the Gulbarga North constituency, arrives at Kalaburagi city’s Shaik Roza area — the final stop for her hectic electioneering Friday.
Fathima then makes a hurried speech highlighting the Congress’s pledges for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly polls. She urges locals to vote for her and not others who, she charges, merely claim to be the “protector” of the interest of the people of the constituency, 60 per cent of whom are Muslims.
At His ‘birthplace’, BJP gets a ride on Hanuman’s shoulders, but climb too uphill
At the entrance to a small Hanuman temple at the south gate of Talavarghat, part of the ancient ruins of the 14th-century Vijayanagara Empire in Anegundi village (across the river from Hampi), a fisherman sits engrossed in his cellphone. Hanumesh, 30, who is named after the God Hanuman, is watching Kannada news videos, with the Internet algorithm dragging him deeper into news stories on his phone. In the last week of campaigning, the BJP raised the pitch over the Congress manifesto promising strict action against outfits such as the Bajrang Dal, calling it an insult to Hanuman and His devotees.
“There is no big issue here with God Hanuman. He is very revered,” says Hanumesh, taking his eyes off his phone. But, he adds, “elections are being fought on other issues. It is Congress candidate Iqbal Ansari who is the favourite to win here because the party is offering many guarantees to the poor.” Read the full story here
Karnataka Election Results 2023: The Congress manifesto promising action against Bajrang Dal has not gone down well with the BJP with PM Narendra Modi equating it with action against Lord Hanuman. This was followed by BJP leaders chanting Hanuman Chalisa in various temples across Karnataka.
It appears like the saffron party which is facing strong anti-incumbency in the state is relying heavily on Hanuman this time for electoral success. But will Sankat Mochan, as Lord Hanuman is called, change BJP’s fortune in Karnataka? Nishant Shekar analyses
Many Hindutvas bump up against layers of caste
In its manifesto, the Congress party decided to bracket the Bajrang Dal with the banned PFI, and its promise to ban the former if voted to power, is a striking departure from its policy of general silence and evasion on Hindutva issues, especially ahead of a crucial election. To understand why it does in Karnataka what it does not in other states where it takes on the BJP, it may be helpful to look closer at Hindutva in Karnataka — or Karnataka’s many Hindutvas.
Because even as Hindutva is a growing force, its homogenising project has not had an easy ride in this complex state so far. Beyond the coastal belt, that is, where it had an early start and where it now rides on the back of mobilisations over decades. In the state’s other regions, Hindutva co-opts, but it also collides with local cultures dominated by caste. Why has this been a big issue in Karnataka? Vandita Mishra explains
BJP looks at Modi to defeat anti-incumbency, Congress hopes to ride it
In an election in which no issue seems to straddle the different regions, no factor flattens the state’s several diversities, anti-incumbency also varies and fluctuates. But you can sense its presence in Karnataka. Voting exactly a week away, for the incumbent BJP, which is making the claim and promise of “double-engine sarkar” the central motif of its pursuit of the elusive “poorna bahumat”, that’s not good news.
Anti-incumbency, mainly centring on price rise and corruption, and encompassing farmers’ vulnerabilities, concerns on education and jobs, is a loud and assertive clamour in South Karnataka’s districts of Mandya, Tumakuru and Mysore. This is caste-dominated Vokkaliga territory where the JD(S) is strong, the battle-lines are drawn with the Congress — and the BJP is struggling to make inroads. Vandita Mishra writes
In order to avoid any untoward incident due to the counting of votes of the 224-seat Karnataka Assembly election, the Bengaluru police said Section 144 will be imposed in the entire district today. The clampdown will be in place from 6 am on Saturday to 12 am on Sunday alongside a prohibition on the sale of alcohol in the Bengaluru police commissionerate region.
Source:Indian Express