Bangalore, May 7: Former union railway minister C.K.Jaffer Sharief on Tuesday said that he expected the Congress Party to win at least 130 assembly seats in Wednesday’s poll counting in Karnataka.
Interacting with media ahead of the vote count, Jaffer Sharief said: “We expect 130 seats in Karnataka. We will form the government un the state on our own.”
There was a 70.23 percent voter turnout in Karnataka on May 5. The vote count will take place in 223 constituencies across the state.
The district administration has made necessary arrangements for the smooth counting of votes tomorrow.
According to television reports, the process of counting of votes polled in Sunday”s elections starts at 8 .am. and the results will be declared by the evening.
The ruling BJP, the Congress and the regional Janata Dal-Secular, which is led by former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, and the KJP led by Yeddyurappa, were the key players in the elections.
A total of 2,940 candidates were in the fray for the polls. Prominent among them are Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, Congress leader Siddaramiah, former Chief Minister B.S Yeddyurappa, KPCC president G. Parameshwara, Deputy Chief Ministers K.S. Eswarappa and R. Ashoka.
Declaring that the voting process was by and large peaceful, Deputy Election Commissioner Ashok Shukla said there were no reports of “major incidents of violence”.
“The polls were absolutely peaceful and fair. The Commission is very satisfied with the polls,” said Shukla.
The Election Commission had installed the web casting devices, in 1,500 polling stations, so that people across the globe could directly envision the polls using the internet.
Elections in Periyapatna has been postponed till May 28 following the death of BJP candidate.
In the 2008 elections, BJP secured 110 seats, three short of majority and formed the government with the help of five independents who were made ministers. Congress bagged 80 seats and JD-S 28. The overall voter turnout then was 64.91 per cent.
