Karnataka Assembly Election Results: Ahead of crucial verdict, BJP's Sriramulu seeks 'divine intervention' for Badami
On the day of crucial Karnataka Assembly Election results, BJP’s B Sriramalu is seeking divine intervention. Sriramalu, who contested for prestigious Badami seat is hoping that there would be some benevolence from above in his fight against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Sriramalu was captured on camera doing elaborate ‘puja’ at his residence. (LIVE UPDATES)
Earlier, on the day of polling, Sriramalu was seen worshipping a cow before casting his vote.
Badami, a tourist town in Bagalkot district in northern Karnataka is renowned for its cave temples.
Siddaramaiah contested from this constituency and holds prominence here as it is dominated by the Kuruba community, a shepherd community to which the chief minister belongs.
Winning the Badami and Chamundeshwari seats would help Siddaramaiah to again stake claim to the state's top post for second consecutive time, if the party wins the elections with a brute majority.
In the 2013 elections, Congress won the Badami seat with a margin of 15,113 votes (10.87 per cent) securing 41.31% of the total votes polled. The constituency saw a voter turnout of 70.71%.
In 2008, however, the BJP won this constituency with a margin of 5,107 votes (4.29%), receiving 44.85% of the votes polled.
There are a total of 2,14,834 voters in the constituency, having over 1 lakh female voters and 16 others.
The polling took place on Saturday in 58,546 polling stations, each equipped with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs).
The election in two constituencies, Jayanagar and RR Nagar, were postponed.
In Jayanagar, the polling was deferred due to the death of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, B N Vijay Kumar, while in RR Nagar, it was postponed due to fake voter-ID row.The election in Karnataka is considered crucial for the Congress Party, as it would be looking to prevent the BJP juggernaut from expanding its footprints in the south.
Since the 2014 general election, the Congress has been defeated by the BJP in over a dozen states, drastically shrinking its political footprint.
The BJP is making an all-out bid to oust the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka and is looking to come back to power in the state with BS Yeddyurappa, its chief ministerial candidate. Interestingly, no incumbent government has been re-elected in Karnataka since 1985.
The Janata Dal (Secular) is looking to establish itself once again in Karnataka politics and is expected to give a tough fight to both the BJP and the Congress.
A total of 2,654 candidates are in the fray and 4.96-crore electorate, including 2.44 crore women, will cast their votes. Over 15 lakh people are first-time voters in the 18-19 age group.Tight security is in place to ensure smooth and peaceful polling across the 222 seats out of 224 assembly constituencies, spread across 30 districts.
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