Karnataka Assembly election: Voting concludes; 65.7% turnout recorded as of 5PM [details]

According to the Election Commission, Karnataka, where voting began at 7 a.m. on Wednesday in Assembly elections, had 65.69% voter turnout until 5 p.m. According to sources, Ramanagara district had the highest voter participation with 78.22%, followed by Chikkaballapur with 76.64% and Bengaluru Rural with 76.10%. BBMP South had the lowest voter participation at 48.63%, followed by BBMP North at 50.02% and BBMP Central at 50.10%. After voting began at 7 a.m., voter turnout was 8.26% at 9 a.m., and turnout picked up momentum and crossed the 52% mark by 3 pm.

JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy told the media after voting that his party is expecting to take a "hit" in up to 25 Assembly constituencies where it had a possibility of winning due to a money shortage in the Karnataka elections held on Wednesday.

Violence in Vijayapura, Bellary

Meanwhile, disturbances erupted at a polling station in Vijayapura district's Masabinal village, which is part of the Basavana Bagewadi Assembly constituency, when villagers damaged the voting machines owing to a misunderstanding. According to reports, the villagers approached election staff workers about the machines, but when they received an unsatisfactory response, they broke the voting machines, presuming that the polling process had been interrupted in the middle.

Also, a fight broke out between Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists in Bellary at a polling station in Sanjeevarayanakote village. Although the cause of the altercation is unknown, the Congress candidate in the constituency, B Nagendra, arrived at the scene and said that BJP workers attacked his party worker Umesh Gowda. According to reports, many individuals were injured during the conflict.

The fate of 2,615 candidates from 224 assembly constituencies will be decided in the Karnataka election which results will be out on May 13th. The current BJP, the Congress, and Janata Dal (Secular) are fighting it out in the southern state. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Congress stalwarts Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar, and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, among others, will have their electoral fates decided during the day-long process.