<p class="title">The D-Day of the most fiercely fought Karnataka Assembly elections has arrived. Counting of votes for the Assembly elections will be taken up at 8 am on Tuesday and trends are likely to trickle in within an hour and all results are expected to be declared by late evening.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The entire nation has been keenly watching the Karnataka elections, touted as a precursor to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Tight security arrangements have been made at 38 centres across the state where counting will be taken up.</p>.<p class="bodytext">After days of high-voltage campaigning, the state recorded its highest ever turnout of 72.36% on May 12.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A victory for the Congress will come as a morale booster for the party which has been losing state after state after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power. A clear mandate (113 seats and above) will mean that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s bhagya schemes have struck a rapport with the people and its separate minority religion tag for Lingayats has worked.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In Karnataka, no party has won a second consecutive term since 1985 when the Ramakrishna Hegde-led Janata Party retained power.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A win for the BJP, on the other hand, will mean a continuation of the victory march of the saffron party led by the Modi-Shah duo in the country. It will also galvanise the rank and file of the BJP cadre ahead of the Assembly elections in party-ruled Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh later this year.</p>
<p class="title">The D-Day of the most fiercely fought Karnataka Assembly elections has arrived. Counting of votes for the Assembly elections will be taken up at 8 am on Tuesday and trends are likely to trickle in within an hour and all results are expected to be declared by late evening.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The entire nation has been keenly watching the Karnataka elections, touted as a precursor to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Tight security arrangements have been made at 38 centres across the state where counting will be taken up.</p>.<p class="bodytext">After days of high-voltage campaigning, the state recorded its highest ever turnout of 72.36% on May 12.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A victory for the Congress will come as a morale booster for the party which has been losing state after state after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power. A clear mandate (113 seats and above) will mean that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s bhagya schemes have struck a rapport with the people and its separate minority religion tag for Lingayats has worked.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In Karnataka, no party has won a second consecutive term since 1985 when the Ramakrishna Hegde-led Janata Party retained power.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A win for the BJP, on the other hand, will mean a continuation of the victory march of the saffron party led by the Modi-Shah duo in the country. It will also galvanise the rank and file of the BJP cadre ahead of the Assembly elections in party-ruled Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh later this year.</p>
