A Karnataka woman gave birth to a baby boy while out to cast a vote at a polling station in Ballari area of Karnataka on Wednesday, officials said today.

According to an official of the Election Commission, the “rare incident” took place when the 23-year-old pregnant woman, who had arrived at a polling booth in Kurlagindi village of Ballari to cast her vote in the Wednesday’s Karnataka Assembly elections, complained of labour pains at the poll booth.

The official said that women officials on poll duty and female voters helped the woman deliver a healthy baby.

Karnataka went to polls on Wednesday for the 224-seat state legislative assembly. The BJP-ruled state witnessed a 65.69 percent voter turnout till 5 pm.

As per data furnished by the Election Commission, Ramanagara recorded the highest turnout of 78.22 percent, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) South limits (parts of Bengaluru city) saw the lowest turnout at 48.63 percent.

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In a first in Karnataka, home voting facility was provided for octogenarian and voters with benchmark disability.

Officials said that over 80,000 senior citizens, aged 80 years and above, 19,279 persons with disability and 15,328 essential service personnel in the state had registered for home voting.

Out of these, a total of 94,931 senior citizens and PwDs cast their vote from home, they said.

The poll regulator had introduced the home voting facility post the Covid pandemic for senior citizens aged 80 years and above and those diagnosed with the corona virus.

Karnataka is witnessing a three-pronged battle between the Congress, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (Secular).

The counting of votes will take place on May 13 (Saturday) with most exit polls predicting a Congress victory with BJP coming in as distant second and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) in third place.

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Exit polls after the Karnataka Assembly elections have thrown up the possibility of a Congress victory with the BJP paying for its error in slighting the Lingayats. Of the 10 exit polls out, 8 put the Congress ahead and the other two putting the BJP ahead. The halfway mark in the 224-member Assembly is 113 seats. The votes will be counted on May 13, Saturday.

The biggest numbers for the Congress were in the India Today-Axis My India exit poll which gave the Mallikarjun Kharge-led party 122 to 140 seats, the BJP at 62-80, the JD(S) at 20-25.  

News24-Today’s Chanakya put the figures at: Congress 120 +/-, BJP 92 +/-, JD(S) 12 +/-. Zee News-Matrize put the Congress ahead at 103-118, the BJP and 79-94 and the JD(S) at 25-33. India TV-CNX also had a rosier picture for the Congress: 110-120, the BJP at 80-90 and the JD(S) at 20-24.

The ABP News’ CVoter exit poll gave the Congress 100 to 112 seats, the BJP 83-95 seats and the Janata Dal (Secular) 21-29 seats.

The Times Now-ETG exit poll showed the Congress at 113, the BJP at 85 and the JD(S) at 23.

TV9 Bharatvarsh-Polstrat exit poll had the Congress at 99-109, the BJP at 88-98, the JD(S) at 21-26.

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The Republic TV-P Marq exit poll indicated a hung house with the Congress netting 94 to 108 seats and the BJP getting between 85 and 100 seats and the JD(S) getting 24 to 32 seats.

Among the exit polls which predicted a BJP victory were NewsNation and Kannada news TV channel Suvarna News.  NewsNation and CGS exit poll had the BJP ahead at 114 seats, just beyond the halfway mark. The Congress was expected to win 86 seats and the JD(S) 21 seats. Kannada TV channel Suvarna News-Jan Ki Baat exit poll put the BJP at 94-117, the Congress at 91-106, the JD(S) at 14-24.

Voters exercised their franchise across Karnataka on a sun-baked Wednesday even though the met department had predicted rainfall after heavy rains in Bengaluru ahead of election day.

The provisional polling percentage was 70.56 per cent till 6 pm, the final figures are awaited. The 2018 polls saw the turnout short of 75 per cent. BJP campaign committee chief BS Yediyurappa had estimated a turnout of 75-80 percent when speaking to reporters after voting in Shikaripura this morning.

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As voters in Karnataka got about voting on Wednesday, a video has surfaced on the internet showing Congress workers performing puja of an LPG cylinder by garlanding and burning their LPG cards in Bengaluru city.

The Congress has been attacking the ruling Basavaraj Bommai government over the Centre’s continued hike in prices of fuels and LPG.

Watch the video here:

Not only fuels, but the retail inflation impacting people’s household budgets has also become a keen point of debate among the parties.

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The price rise has been felt nationwide. Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav has said the Narendra Modi-led BJP government has been witness to the increase in prices by up to 30 per cent and the impact is being felt by the middle class.

During the last years of the UPA government under Manmohan Singh, the BJP had attacked the then Centre for hiking LPG and fuel prices among other issues. Party leaders the late Arun Jaitley, the late Sushma Swaraj and Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani had led such protests in busy thoroughfares of the capital.

Karnataka is voting for the 224-member Karnataka Assembly today and the results will be out on Saturday, May 13. While the Congress had displayed an edge at the beginning of the campaign, it was neutralised by the BJP with successive campaigns by Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP Chief JP Nadda. The anti-incumbency factor aside, the Janata Dal (Secular) of HD Kumaraswamy is likely to be the kingmaker, though Kumaraswamy himself boasted today of becoming king instead of a kingmaker.

The campaign which had the 40 per cent Sarkari tag will be remembered for the Bajrang Bali connection when the BJP mocked the Congress manifesto for threatening to ban the Bajrang Dal if it came to power. The BJP has unleashed a rain of sops apart from the trump cards of the Uniform Civil Code and the National Register of Citizens, which had won Assam.

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