SHIVAMOGGA: Bharatiya Janata Pary (BJP) leader and former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa’s son, B Y Vijayendra on Wednesday voted in Shikaripura and expressed confidence that his party will win 135 seats in the Karnataka Assembly polls.
“Modi’s magic will give us absolute majority. We will win at least 130 seats in this election. Not only the Lingayat community, but all other castes are also with BJP. The Congress will lose the election very badly,” said Vijayendra.
Vijayendra was accompanied his father as the duo visited their family’s ancestral temple at Raghavendra Swamy Mutt in Shikaripura ahead of voting. Vijayendra is contesting from the Shikaripura constituency, which was his father’s traditional seat.
“This is my first election and I am happy that the party gave me the opportunity to contest. I’m blessed to contest for the Shikaripura seat. People are fed up with hung Assembly and I am confident that BJP will get a majority,” he said.
Yediyurappa was among early voters and cast his vote at Aadalitha Soudha in Shikaripura. “I request all people to cast their votes as early as possible. I am 100 per cent sure they will vote in favour of the BJP. More than 75-80 per cent will support BJP. We will win 130-135 seats,” the former chief minister said after casting his vote. “We will get absolute majority and will form the government, there is no doubt about it. People’s responses are very good in the state and on that basis, I am telling you we are going to get a majority”, he added.
The polling for the Karnataka Assembly elections began at 7 am amid tight security and will continue till 6 pm. The voting is being held for 224 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka with 2,615 candidates in the fray. The fate of the candidates will be known on May 13, the day of the counting of votes. Polling is scheduled across 58,545 polling stations including auxiliary polling stations. A total of 42,48,028 new voters have been registered to vote for the assembly elections.
As many as 5.3 crore general voters are going to cast their vote in 58,545 polling stations in 37,777 locations. Of the total, 11,71,558 are young voters and 12,15,920 are 80+ senior citizen voters. There are also 5,71,281 PwD voters. Around 4,00,000 polling personnel are engaged in poll processes.
In all, 84,119 state police officers and 58,500 CAPF personnel are on Law and Order and security duty across the state. All police officers are on rounds to ensure law and order efficiently and handle MCC violations. About 185 interstate border checkposts and 100 excise checkposts are on high alert. The Commercial Tax officers are deployed in 185 checkposts (SSTs) and 75 excise checkposts.
The high-voltage campaign for the Assembly elections in Karnataka ended on Monday with all party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, holding 19 public meetings and six roadshows while Congress leader Rahul Gandhi camped in the state for 12 days.
Some of the key constituencies which will make a major mark in the polls are Varuna, Kanakapura, Shiggaon, Hubli-Darwad Central, Channapatna, Shikaripura, Chittapur, Ramanagara and Chikmagalur. (ANI)