Amid counting of votes for the Karnataka Assembly elections on Saturday, May 13, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the voting trends emerging were congruent with the Congress’s calculations of winning with a comfortable margin. Siddaramaiah is contesting against V Somanna of BJP in Varuna, and was leading by 8,345 votes as of 11.30 am according to the Election Commission of India. “That margin will only increase as counting progresses. Somanna will lose in both constituencies (Varuna and Chamarajanagar). I am confident of that,” Siddaramaiah told the media.
The former CM said that he expects the Congress to win around 120 seats. “We had calculated that the Congress would win over 120 seats and the BJP may win 60-70 seats, and the trends now are showing the same. We are confident of winning and we will form the government with our own strength,” he added.
Siddaramaiah said that the people of Karnataka were disgruntled with the corruption of the BJP government. “It doesn’t matter if Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes to Karnataka, the people want change,” he said.
As counting of votes began on Saturday morning, the Congress maintained a lead over the ruling BJP. Several BJP ministers were trailing in their respective segments as of 11.30 am.
The Karnataka Assembly election was held for a total of 224 constituencies, with 36 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and 15 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes on May 10. The state has a total of 5,24,11,557 electors, out of which 5,23,63,948 are general electors. A total of 2,613 candidates contested the elections, out of which 2,427 were male, 185 were female, and one was a transgender person. This time, Karnataka witnessed a record voter turnout of 72.67%.