BENGALURU: The Congress is leading in Karnataka Assembly polls in early trends of results and has crossed the halfway mark, according to the latest data from Election Commission. The party was ahead in 118 seats while the BJP was leading in 72. The JD(S) was ahead in 29 seats while Others in five.
The Congess party appeared to stretch its margin over the BJP with almost a 7 per cent lead over the ruling party in vote share. According to Election Commission data Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP) and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha were ahead in one seat each.
Trends were available for 219 of 224 seats in the state. The Congress has a vote share of 43.1 per cent while it is 36. 2 per cent for BJP and 12.8 per cent for JD(S). The halfway mark in assembly is 113.
The counting of votes began at 8 am amid tight security across the state. There were celebrations at Congress headquarters in Delhi in anticipation of victory.
Former Karnataka CM and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy visited a temple in Bengaluru amid the counting of votes for Karnataka polls. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited a Lord Hanuman temple in Shimla.
The exit polls predicted a hung Assembly with some showing Congress returning to power with a majority. A few exit polls also showed BJP ahead. If there is hung assembly, Janata Dal (Secular) can play the role of a kingmaker.
(ANI)