Exit polls suggest a close competition between the Congress and BJP in the Karnataka Assembly elections. India Today-Axis My India predicts the Congress will have a clear majority with 122-140 seats out of 224, while News 24-Today’s Chanakya forecasts the Congress will win with 120 seats. The BJP is predicted to win 62-100 seats, while Janata Dal (Secular) is expected to win 12-29 seats. The results will be announced on Saturday.
Other exit polls from ABP News-C Voter, Republic TV-P MARQ, India TV-CNX, TV9 Bharatvarsh-Polstrat, and Zee News-Matrize Agency give varying seat predictions, but all show the Congress leading. News Nation-CGS predicts that the BJP will win with 114 seats. The Suvarna News-Jan Ki Baat poll predicts BJP will win 94-117, Congress 91-106, and JD(S) 14-24. Times Now-ETG predicts Congress will win 113 seats, BJP will win 85, and JD(S) will win 23.
In the previous election in 2018, BJP won 104 seats, Congress won 80, JD(S) won 37, while independent candidate and two smaller parties won one seat each. As no party had a clear majority, BJP formed the government but had to resign three days later as it couldn’t muster enough support. Congress-JD(S) then formed the government, but it collapsed in 14 months as 17 legislators resigned and defected to BJP, enabling it to come back to power in the bypolls. BJP currently has 116 MLAs, followed by Congress at 69 and JD(S) at 29 in the outgoing Assembly.
