Exit polls give majority for Cong

69% polling in Karnataka, counting on Wed.

• Yeddyurappa eats into BJP votes
• BJP loses its only southern bastion after five years due to party bickerings
• Janata Dal (S) may emerge as second highest

New Delhi: Various exit polls have predicted a Congress comeback in Karnataka on its own steam. CNN-IBN predicted that the Congress would bag 100-116 seats in the 224 member Karnataka Assembly while the ruling BJP may end up with around 50 seats. About 69 per cent cast their votes on Sunday while the counting will be held on Wednesday. Other exit polls like Chanakya (Times Now) put the Congress at 132 and the BJP at around 40, down from 110 from previous elections. But exit polls have shown that the Congress has not substantially increased its vote percentage, suggesting that it was former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, who was booted out by the saffron party, torpedoed the prospects of the BJP. HD Deve Gowda-led JD(S) is also likely to get 35 to 45 seats, as per the predictions. Yeddyurappa's KJP is likely to get 10-13 and a vote share of 7 per cent. Others get 16-24 seats. In the current Assembly, BJP has 110 MLAs - three short of majority - and rules the state with the help of five Independent MLAs who were inducted into the ministry. Congress has 80 seats and JD(S) 28. Earlier, CNN-IBN and The Week had conducted a pre-poll survey on Karnataka in the second week of April and projected that Congress is likely to get 117-129 seats, BJP 39-49, JD(S) 34-44 and others 14-22. An estimated 69 per cent of the about 4.36 crore electorate voted in the largely peaceful Assembly polls on Sunday. The 7 am-to-6 pm vote kicked off on a brisk pace initially but appeared to lose steam as the mercury soared before picking up momentum again in the last hours in 223 segments, where a total of 2,940 candidates were in the fray. Election Commission officials said the figure was estimated to be around 69 per cent by the close, but the exact poll percentage is expected later following compilation from all the segments.

69% voter turnout in peaceful polls

• Resurgent Cong set to emerge as single largest party
• Counting of votes on May 8
• KJP, BSR Congress hit BJP prospects

Bangalore (PTI): An estimated 69 per cent of the about 4.36 crore electorate voted in the largely peaceful Assembly polls in Karnataka on Sunday amid projections that the beleaguered ruling BJP was on a sticky wicket against a resurgent Congress. The 7 am-to-6 pm vote kicked off on a brisk pace initially but appeared to lose steam as the mercury soared before picking up momentum again in the last hours in 223 segments, where a total of 2,940 candidates were in the fray. Election in Periyapatna in Mysore district had been put off to May 28 following the death of the BJP candidate. "Polling was peaceful. We have no reports of poll disruptions," Joint Chief Electoral Officer T Shamaiah said, adding that polling was 60.68 per cent till 5 pm. Election Commission officials said the figure was estimated to be around 65 per cent by the close, but the exact poll percentage is expected later following compilation from all the segments. The counting will be done on May 8.

Prominent candidates included Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah, President of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee G Parameshwara, former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and JDS state unit President H D Kumaraswamy. Authorities had made elaborate security arrangements with some 1.35 lakh police personnel on duty in some 52,000 polling booths where about 65,000 electronic voting machines had been installed.A Barring sporadic incidents, including one at Bellary, the voting was largely peaceful. Breakaway parties -- Karnataka Janatha Paksha of former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and BSR Congress formed by former Minister B Sriramulu -- are projected to dent the prospects of the BJP, already battered by intra-party fights and allegations of corruption. Pre-poll surveys have predicted that the Congress is all set to emerge as the single largest party or be at a striking distance of coming to power in the elections.

The strength of BJP, which won 110 seats in the 2008 elections, is forecast to come down by more than half, and that of JD-S to improve by a dozen seats compared to 28 the last time around. Police have arrested four persons who were openly wielding swords in the district headquarters town of Kolar, adding that a major clash was averted between supporters of an independent and a political party. At Sidlagatta in Chikkaballapura district, one person sustained serious injuries after being attacked by supporters of another party. In a Bellary booth, a voter was allegedly hit by a policeman over a trivial issue and sustained injuries in the ear. Meanwhile, Leelavathi Mekki, a 28-year-old teacher, who reported for poll duty on Saturday at Negalur in Haveri district complained of chest pain and died on Sunday in neighbouring Davangere, where she was shifted. In the 2008 elections to the total of 224 seats, the BJP, with 33.86 per cent of the votes polled, secured 110 seats, followed by the Congress (34.59) 80 seats and JD-S (19.13) 28 seats. While the overall voter turnout was 64.91 per cent in the 2008 elections, the average in the 28 segments of Bangalore was a low 47.3 per cent.