Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023 in numbers

Polling in the state will be held on May 10, while counting will be held on May 13

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday announced the dates for the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023, with polling slated to be held on May 10 and counting scheduled for May 13.

With the polls a little over a month away, here's a look at the Karnataka Assembly elections in numbers:

** There are a total of 224 Assembly Constituencies in Karnataka.

** Karnataka has 5.21 crore eligible voters this time around, with 2.62 crore male voters and 2.59 crore female voters. The state also has 5.55 lakh PwD voters, 4,699 third gender voters, and 47,779 service lectors.

** The number of elderly voters (above the age of 80 years) in Karnataka has risen by 32.5 per cent from 2018 to hit 12.15 lakhs this time around, with 16,976 elderly voters being above the age of 100. A vote-from-home facility has also been introduced for senior voters for the first time.

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** The number of differently abled voters in the state has also risen manifold, from 2.15 lakhs in 2018 to 5.55 lakhs this time, an increase of 158 per cent.

** The number of eligible first-time voters this time around is 9.17 lakh, and 1.25 lakh advance applications have been filed by 17+ youth.

** There has been 100 per cent enrollment of particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) with all 30,517 electors from these groups being included in electoral rolls.

** Of the 42,576 transgender persons in Karnataka, 41,312 have been included in electoral rolls for this year's Assembly elections.

** Karnataka will have 58,282 polling stations across the state—24,063 urban and 34,219 rural—for this year's Assembly elections, with each station serving an average of 883 voters.

** 1,320 polling booths will be managed exclusively by women, while differently abled polling agents will exclusively manage 224 booths. An additional 224 booths, meanwhile, will be exlcusively managed by the youth.

** 50 per cent or 29,141 booths will have webcasting facilities for improved surveillance.

** 99.8 per cent of polling stations will have drinking water facilities, 99.54 per cent will have electricity facilities, 98.6 per cent will have ramp facilities, and 98.2 per cent will have toilet facilities.

** In last year's elections, BBMP (South), BBMP (North), BBMP (Central), and Bangalore Urban recorded the lowest turnouts— 51.98 per cent, 53.47 per cent, 55.18 per cent, and 57 per cent respectively. Given this fact, the ECI is trying to take measures to addresss urban apathy.

** This year's Karnataka Assembly elections will also see the deployment of various teams to curb the misuse of 'money power', especially acorss the 81 'expenditure sensitive' constituencies. 146 expenditure observers and 237 assistant expenditure observers will be deployed, in addition to 2,016 flying squads, and 2,400 static surveillance teams.

** With Karnataka having 19 districts with inter-state borders, a total of 171 inter-state checkpoints will be set up to prevent outside interference.