Karnataka Election Results 2018 : Hung house in Karnataka; Congress, BJP spar over poaching rumours: Updates

After results to the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 threw up a hung Assembly on Tuesday, both BJP and Congress-JD(S) combine are targetting each other with allegations of poaching of legislators

A day after the Karnataka election results 2018 threw up a fractured mandate, some members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were reported to be claiming that they were in touch with several of elected members of legislative Assembly (MLAs) from the Congress and the JD(S), and that the BJP would definitely form the next government in the state.

The BJP, apparently, is in talks with at least seven of the 10 Lingayat legislators of the Congress who are unhappy with the party for dividing the Lingayat community votes and are unwilling to accept Kumaraswamy, a Vokkaliga, as their chief minister. Sources in the BJP told Business Standard that the party was also in touch with about half a dozen JD(S) MLAs who might be willing to abstain from voting at the time of the floor test.

Meanwhile, the outgoing Karnataka chief minister, Siddaramaiah, rejected the reports of dissension among Congress MLAs and called them "just baseless rumours”.Counter-claims of the Congress being in talks with some BJP MLAs were also doing the rounds. Sources in the Congress claimed that some BJP legislators had contacted the Congress high-command, saying they would not vote against the Congress-JD(S) coalition if it gets a chance to prove its majority on the floor of the House.

Congress leader D K Shivakumar, while talking to news agency ANI, said that the party had a plan and that they were facing a lot of pressure with the BJP trying to poach Congress MLAs.

In the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 results, the BJP emerged as the single largest party, with 104 seats, but it fell short of the halfway mark of 112 in the 224-seat state Assembly by 9 seats. Congress ended up as the second-biggest with 78 seats, and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) stood third with 38 seats. The Congress and the JD(S) decided to come together to form a coalition government.

At present, the ball is in the court of Governor Vajubhai Vala, who will decide which side would be invited to form the next government. According to an NDTV report, both sides would meet the governor again on Wednesday to make their case stronger.

Karnataka Assembly election 2018 saw a record 72.36 per cent of the 50.7 million (5.07 crore) voters exercising their right to franchise. Of them, 27,908 electors in defence services voted through postal ballots. The Election Commission had deployed 16,662 personnel for counting of votes amid tight security.

Four of the seven polling agencies had predicted in their exit polls that the BJP would emerge as the single-largest party. While most exit polls predicted a hung Assembly with the BJP ahead, two had said the BJP would either come very close to or cross the halfway mark of 112 seats. The India Today-Axis exit poll had said the Congress might bag a majority. All exit polls had given the H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) nearly two dozen seats or more. The JD(S), however, beat that projection by bagging 37 seats.

Here are the top 10 developments → Karnataka Assembly election 2018 results