New Delhi: IT industry veteran NR Narayana Murthy and his wife Sudha Murthy on Wednesday voted early in the Karnataka Assembly elections. Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murthy cast their vote at Jayanagar in Bengaluru, where Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also voted,
Urging people to come out and vote, Sudha Murthy said, “I will not ask you who you will vote for or why you will vote because everyone has their own opinion and decision, but everyone should vote We should. We vote in every election.”
She said that she always tells the youth to come and vote because then they have the power to speak.
He said, ‘You don’t have the power to speak without voting.
On people who ‘go out’ without voting, he said that only those who do not have patriotism do this.
He said, “Please look at us. We are old but we get up at six, come here and vote. Please learn from us. Voting is a sacred part of democracy.”
Infosys founder Narayana Murthy said it is the responsibility of the elders to sit with the youth and advise them why voting is important.
“That’s what my parents did,” he told reporters.
Voting began at 7 a.m. on Wednesday for the high-stakes assembly elections in Karnataka, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) eyeing to script history by retaining its southern bastion, while a belligerent Congress is eyeing the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Returning first.
Polling is being held for 224 seats in what is being seen primarily as a triangular contest between the BJP, the Congress and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular).
The electoral fate of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Congress veteran Siddaramaiah and other top leaders including DK Shivakumar and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy will be sealed during the day-long exercise.
A total of 5,31,33,054 voters are eligible to vote in 58,545 polling stations across the state where 2,615 candidates are in the fray. Among the voters, 2,67,28,053 are male, 2,64,00,074 are female and 4,927 are “others”, while the candidates are 2,430 male, 184 female and one from a third gender.
The votes polled will be counted on May 13.
Earlier in the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections, BJP had emerged as the single largest party by winning 104 seats, followed by Congress on 80 and JD(S) on 37. There was one independent member, while the BSP and the Karnataka Pragyavantha Janata Party (KPJP) had one MLA each.
With no party having a clear majority and Congress and JD(S) trying to form a coalition, BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa claimed and formed the government. However, he had to resign when he was unable to muster the required numbers within three days before the trust vote. Subsequently, the Congress-JD(S) coalition formed the government with Kumaraswamy as the CM, but the wobbly arrangement collapsed within 14 months, as 17 MLAs resigned and walked out of the ruling coalition, leaving the party Joined BJP to help it come back to power. ,
After this, in the by-elections held in 2019, the ruling party won 12 out of 15 seats.
In the outgoing assembly, the BJP has 116 MLAs, followed by the Congress with 69, and the JD(S) with 29. The BSP has one MLA, two independents, one Speaker and six vacant seats (after death and resignations to join other parties before the elections).