Karnataka Elections: BJP heading towards forming government

The counting of votes for Karnataka Assembly elections is underway, and here's a look at how the contest is panning out as per the early trends:

The BJP seems to be heading towards forming a government in Karnataka. After the initial rounds of counting, BJP was leading in 119 seats with Congress settling for a distant second with 55 seats. In the third place was JD(S), with 46 seats while the other parties and independent candidates were leading in two constituencies.

The counting of votes in the Karnataka Assembly elections held on May 12 to 222 of the 224 assembly constituencies began at 8 am.

The saffron party, whose election campaign in Karnataka was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was leading in 36 constituencies despite the dominant Lingayats.

No other party has reached close to the halfway mark required for the majority in the 224-member assembly.

In Karnataka’s southern region, BJP, however, is trailing behind both JD(S) and Congress. The reason is cited to be the BJP-led Centre's delay in drafting the Cauvery management scheme.

The BJP and Congress were neck-and-neck in Bengaluru with the former leading in 12 seats and the ruling party up to 11 seats.

Chief minister Siddaramaiah is trailing behind main rival GT Deve Gowda of the JD(S) by over 11,000 in Chamundeshwari constituency but leading by a margin of 5,000 votes in Badami.

Meanwhile, his son Yathindra, contesting from the Congress stronghold of Varuna, was leading over his rivals.

In Ramanagara, JD(S) party's Karnataka unit president HD Kumaraswamy was leading over the Congress candidate Iqbal Hussain by over 7,000 votes while also leading from the Channapatna seat.

In Shikaripura, BJP's chief ministerial candidate, BS Yeddyurappa, was ahead by 3,420 votes over Congress candidate G B Malatesh.