The Model Code of Conduct in the state has come into force with the announcement of poll schedule…reports Asian Lite News
The Election Commission on Wednesday announced the schedule for the Karnataka Assembly elections. The polling will be held on May 10 and the results will be declared on May 13.
The term of the 224-member Assembly ends on May 24.
As per Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, total electors in Karnataka are 5.2 crore. He informed that the total number of 80 plus year-old electors stands at 12.15 lakh.
Over 9.17 lakh first-time voters will participate in the elections. Under Advance Application Facility over 1.25 lakh applications were received from 17 years plus youths, out of which around 41,000 applications were received from youths turning 18 years by April 1, 2023.
The Model Code of Conduct in the state has come into force with the announcement of poll schedule.
CEC Rajiv Kumar said the urban apathy and misuse of money power are the two major issues in the state and appropriate initiatives are being taken in this regard. “We have directed all the enforcement authorities on this,” said the CEC.
The Election Commission (EC) is strengthening its teams to curb the misuse of money power, the CEC said. There will be 2,400 static surveillance teams to keep strict vigil and multiple agencies working in synergy and coordination, he added.
To ensure free, fair and inducement-free elections, the awareness and cooperation of citizens are key. Citizens can report any kind of electoral malpractices to the ECI through cVIGIL App, the CEC added.
Strong anti-incumbency
According to an exclusive opinion poll conducted in Karnataka by ABP-CVoter, there is very strong anti-incumbency against the BJP government led by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
According to the survey, as many as 57 per cent of the respondents said they are upset and wish to change the state government. Corruption has emerged as the third most pressing issue in the poll-bound state, after unemployment and infrastructure.
According to the ABP-CVoter survey, 50.5 per cent of the respondents rated the performance of the BJP government as ‘poor’. In contrast, just 27.7 per cent rated it as ‘good’ with another 21.8 per cent rating the performance as ‘average’.
ABP-CVoter had conducted a similar opinion poll in Gujarat in late 2022 before the Assembly elections, wherein about 42 per cent of the voters had rated the performance of the BJP government as ‘good’ while 32 per cent had rated it as ‘bad’.
Even in Himachal Pradesh, where the BJP lost narrowly to the Congress to go out of power, 38.6 per cent of the potential voters had rated the state government’s performance as ‘good’ with 36.4 per cent rating it as ‘poor’.
The exclusive ABP-CVoter survey interacted with around 25,000 respondents in Karnataka across demographics, age groups and identities.
The survey throws up more bad news for the BJP. When it comes to the Chief Minister, as many as 46.9 per cent of the potential voters rated the performance of incumbent CM Basavaraj Bommai as ‘poor’, while just 26.8 per cent rated his performance as ‘good’.
In the same survey, a considerably higher proportion (39.1 per cent) singled out Congress leader Siddaramaiah as their preferred choice to be the next CM, while 31.1 per cent opted for Bommai.
Anti-incumbency against the BJP government seems to have the least impact over perceptions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to the survey, 47.4 per cent of the respondents rated the performance of Modi as ‘good’, while 33.8 per cent rated it as ‘poor’.
The strong anti-incumbency sentiments tally with the ABP-CVoter projection that gives the Congress between 115 and 127 seats, a comfortable majority in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, which goes to the polls on May 10.