The 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election was held on 12 May 2018 in 222 constituencies to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. The election was postponed in Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, following the death of the MLA B. N. Vijaya Kumar and a voter fraud scandal respectively, until 28 May. The election saw a voter turnout of 72.13 per cent, the highest in Karnataka for several decades. The counting of votes took place on 15 May 2018.

The Indian National Congress (INC) was seeking re-election, having governed the state since elections in 2013. The Bharatiya Janata Party attempted to regain office, having previously governed the state in 2007 and from 2008 to 2013. The Janata Dal (Secular), and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) contested the election in an electoral alliance. The Aam Aadmi Party also made its debut in the state.

Background The tenure of the 15th Karnataka Assembly ended on 28 May 2018.

Organization The Times of India reported in late February 2018 that the state had fewer electronic voting machines than the minimum mandated requirement to be stored going into elections for any state assembly. The report stated that only 20 percent or 11,399 EVMs were in place against the requirement of 56,994 machines, one each for a polling station. Bharat Electronics Limited, which provides 80 percent of the machines, began supplying during this time. The district election officer for the Bangalore region stated that a "vulnerability mapping exercise" would be conducted to ensure "free and fair polls". He added that 550 sector teams, each headed by a sector magistrate, a police officer (not below the rank of an assistant sub-inspector) and a videographer, were formed, one for every 15 of the 8,274 polling stations in the said region.

Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines were used with EVMs in all polling stations in Karnataka.

Schedule

The schedule of the election was announced by the Election Commission of India on 27 March 2018. It announced that polling would be held in a single phase on 12 May and that results would be declared on 15 May. It also declared that the provisions of the Model Code of Conduct "came into force with immediate effect" with the said announcement. EventDateDay Date for nominations 17 April 2018 Tuesday Last date for filing nominations 24 April 2018 Tuesday Date for scrutiny of nominations 25 April 2018 Wednesday Last date for withdrawal of candidatures 27 April 2018 Friday Date of poll 12 May 2018 Saturday Date of counting 15 May 2018 Tuesday Date before which the election shall be completed 31 May 2018 Thursday

Controversies

Leaked election dates The Election Commission of India ran into a major embarrassment on 27 March 2018, when BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya and the Karnataka Congress' social media in-charge, Srivasta, tweeted the dates before they were officially released. However, both of them got the counting day incorrect in their tweets. Both the tweets were deleted after outrage on Twitter. Malviya later claimed that he got the information from Times Now, a 24-hour English news channel. The news was reportedly also shown by a local Kannada news channel. Later it was revealed that even Times Now got the counting day incorrectly as 18 May 2018, instead of 15 May 2018.

Om Prakash Rawat, the Chief Election Commissioner of India, formed a committee to investigate the alleged leak. The terms of reference of the formed committee included probing certain media outlets and Congress' social media head Srivasta, but not BJP's Amit Malviya. This prompted allegations of the Election Commission of India being biased for the BJP by the Congress.

On 14 April 2018, the committee said that the media reports were mere speculation and not a leak.

Voter ID fraud case On 11 May 2018, Congress MLA Munirathna and 13 others were booked in an alleged fake voter ID scam. On 8 May, almost 10,000 voter ID cards, along with several laptops, were found in a flat in Bengaluru owned by former BJP leader Manjula Nanjamari. Apart from these, Munirathna's pamphlets were also found, which turned the suspicion on Munirathna. After the FIR, he said "I've distributed 40,000 pamphlets asking for votes for me in my constituency and you will find them in every home in my segment. I've been named as accused no. 14 because one such pamphlet was found in the flat that was raided. This is an outrageous complaint against me and part of the concerted propaganda to harass and humiliate me."

The polling in RR Nagar was postponed to 28 May and the counting of votes was done on 31 May.

Kaveri river water scandal

The Karnataka Legislative Assembly election sparked criticisms from Tamil Nadu over the Karnataka's government for not addressing the issue on properly and for its delay in setting up a Kaveri Management Board. The Supreme Court also issued a strict notice to the Karnataka state government for using the Karnataka Legislative state election as an excuse to resolve the Kaveri river water crisis with Tamil Nadu cannot be acceptable. The election was one of the hottest points considered by the critics for the future of Karnataka in dealing with the rivals, Tamil Nadu over the Kaveri River water dispute.

Parties and alliances

PartyFlagSymbolLeaderContesting seatsIndian National CongressSiddaramaiah222

PartyFlagSymbolLeaderContesting seatsBharatiya Janata Party B. S. Yediyurappa222

PartyFlagSymbolLeaderContesting seatsJanata Dal (Secular)H. D. Kumaraswamy199Bahujan Samaj PartyMayawati18

List of candidates