The Next Karnataka legislative assembly election is expected to be held by May 2028 to elect all 224 members of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. D. K. Shivakumar is the incumbent chief minister of Karnataka, having been sworn in on 3 June 2026 with G. Parameshwara as his deputy, following the resignation of Siddaramaiah on 28 May 2026.
Background Following the 2023 Karnataka Assembly election, the Indian National Congress formed a government under Siddaramaiah, with D. K. Shivakumar — the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president who had led the party's campaign — serving as deputy chief minister. An internal power-sharing understanding within the party was widely believed to envisage a leadership rotation partway through the term, under which Shivakumar would eventually be elevated to chief minister, though this was never formally announced.
Speculation over the arrangement intensified from late 2025, as Shivakumar and his supporters pressed for the transition. Siddaramaiah resigned as chief minister on 28 May 2026 following direction from the Congress high command; Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot accepted the resignation the following day. On 30 May 2026, Shivakumar was unanimously elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party at a meeting at Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru, with Siddaramaiah himself proposing his name. Shivakumar was sworn in as chief minister on 3 June 2026, with G. Parameshwara as deputy chief minister, becoming the second Vokkaliga chief minister of Karnataka from the Indian National Congress.
No date for the next election has been formally notified by the Election Commission of India as of August 2026. In late May 2026, Karnataka BJP state president B. Y. Vijayendra publicly raised the possibility of mid-term polls, without offering specifics or evidence, fuelling speculation about the stability of the Congress government; the party leadership has not confirmed any such plan.
Schedule Poll event Schedule Notification date TBD Last date for filing nomination TBD Scrutiny of nomination TBD Last date for withdrawal of nomination TBD Date of poll TBD Date of counting of votes TBD
Parties and alliances PartyFlagSymbolLeaderSeats contested Indian National Congress D. K. Shivakumar (Legislative Leader & Chairman) B. K. Hariprasad (State President)TBDBharatiya Janata PartyR. Ashoka (Legislative Leader & Chairman) B. Y. Vijayendra (State President)TBDJanata Dal (Secular)C. B. Suresh Babu (Legislative Leader) H. D. Kumaraswamy (Chairman) H. D. Deve Gowda (President)TBDAam Aadmi PartyMukhyamantri ChandruTBDKarnataka Rashtra SamithiRavi Krishna ReddyTBDBahujan Samaj PartyM. Krishna MurthyTBDUttama Prajaakeeya PartyUpendra RaoTBDSocial Democratic Party of IndiaAbdul Majeed MysoreTBDAll India Majlis-e-Ittehadul MuslimeenLateef Khan Amirkhan PathanTBDSarvodaya Karnataka PakshaDarshan Puttannaiah (Legislative Leader & President) Amzad Pasha (Chairman)TBDSamajwadi PartyN. Manjappa YadavTBDCommunist Party of IndiaSati SundareshTBDCommunist Party of India (Marxist)K. PrakashTBDAll India Forward BlocG.R. ShivashankarTBDShiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)TBDCommunist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) LiberationClifton D' RozarioTBDNationalist Congress PartyHari RTBDJanata Dal (United)Mahima. J PatelTBDNational People's PartyDr. Ashok Kumar XavierTBDShiv SenaSiddalinga SwamiTBD
Opinion polling Seats and vote share projections +Seat share projectionsPolling agencyDate publishedLeadINCBJPJD(S)Others Diptanshu Banerjee 4th October 202614060204INDIA
Results Results by alliance AlliancePopular voteSeatsVotes%±ppContested Won+/−Indian National Developmental Inclusive AllianceNational Democratic AllianceOther partiesIndependentsNOTATotal100% — 224 —
See also Elections in Karnataka Politics of Karnataka Shivakumar ministry
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