NEW DELHI, May 12: With the counting of votes for the Karnataka Assembly elections scheduled on Saturday, a slew of exit polls have mostly predicted a hung Assembly with the Congress emerging as the single-largest, followed by the BJP with less than 100 seats.
In the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, 113 is the magic figure which the political parties need to reach in order to stake claim to form the government.
As per Axis, the Congress may bag 122 to 140 seats, while News24-Today’s Chanakya too predicted 120 seats for the Congress, 92 for the BJP and 12 for the JD(S).
According to Republic-P MARQ exit poll, Congress is expected to get around 94 to 108 seats, while the BJP is also shown to be quite close, expecting to bag anything from 85 to 110 seats. JD(S) is expected to get 24 to 32 seats.
Times Now-ETG, however, has given Congress 113 seats, predicting that it will reach the majority mark, while the BJP is predicted to get only 85 seats and the JD(S) 23 seats.
News Nation-CGS though has predicted that the BJP may cross the majority mark with 114 seats, while the Congress may bag just 86 seats. JD(S) is expected to win 21 seats.
Buoyed by the reports of “being very close to the seat of power in Karnataka”, the Congress camp witnessed hectic activities on Friday with sources revealing that the high command is ready with a “50:50 formula” for the post of chief minister.
Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar are the prominent contenders for the CM’s post. (IANS)