Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday urged the people of Karnataka to vote in large numbers to build a progressive and a "40-per cent-commission-free" state .In a tweet in Hindi, Gandhi said, "Karnataka's vote" for 5 guarantees, for women's rights, for youth employment, for the upliftment of the poor. Come, vote in large numbers." "Let's build a 40%-commission-free, progressive Karnataka together," Gandhi tweeted in Hindi using the hashtag 'Congress Winning150'.He also shared a graphic featuring the Congress' five guarantees.
Voting is underway in Karnataka to elect members to the 224-seat assembly. It began at 7 am and continue till 6 pm. According to Election Commission data, in the first two hours of voting, an 8.26 per cent voter turnout was recorded. Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the polls has urged young voters to vote for the Karnataka Assembly election “Urging the people of Karnataka, particularly young and first-time voters to vote in large numbers and enrich the festival of democracy,” Modi tweeted. 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. Out of which 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.