In a bid to encourage first-time voters, an eatery here was giving away free dosas to those had voted in the Karnataka assembly election on Saturday.

The eatery at Nrupathunga Road here was also giving free coffee to other voters after seeing the ink-mark on their fingers and their voters card.

Several of the first-time voters, aged 18-19, who comprise 15.42 lakh of Karnataka’s 5.06 crore electorate, took selfies with ink mark on their index finger after coming out of the polling booths.

A few hospital patients here were seen reaching the voting booths in ambulances to cast their vote, while several senior citizens across the state braved the summer heat to stand in the queues in order to vote.

Also, three to-be brides in Belagavi, Madikeri and Dharwad districts headed down to the polling stations before going to their weddings.

Meanwhile, hundreds of villagers in Kalaburagi, 630 km north of Bengaluru, have boycotted the polls protesting the lack of basic facilities in the area.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, fighting a tough battle to retain power in the state where no party has been re-elected for a second straight term in 33 years, described his chief rival, BS Yeddyurappa, as “mentally disturbed” for predicting a BJP victory.

He also said there was “no doubt” that the Congress would return to power with over 120 seats in the 224-member Karnataka assembly when the results were declared on Tuesday.

Asked by reporters to react to Mr Yeddyurappa declaring he would be sworn in on May 17, Mr Siddaramaiah quipped: “He is mentally disturbed.”

Earlier in the day, Mr Yeddyurappa, the presumptive chief minister of the BJP, declared, “I will fly to Delhi on the 15th once the results are announced and meet Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi. I will invite him and others for the swearing in ceremony which is going to happen most likely on the 17th.”

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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is fighting a tough battle to retain power in the state where no party has been re-elected for a second straight term in 33 years.

Was this overconfidence, reporters asked Mr Siddaramaiah. “It is a strategy. He (Yeddyurappa) thinks this is a strategy, but in reality he is a mentally disturbed man,” he said.

“The BJP can say what they like. The Congress party will get a clear majority, there is no doubt about that, there is no confusion about that. We will form the government again. We are very confident of a win,” said the chief minister.

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COMMENTSOpinion polls have not backed any winner but mostly predict a close fight between the Congress and the BJP, with the Janata Dal Secular hoping to win enough seats to matter in the event of a hung verdict.

Mr Yeddyurappa projected that his party would win between 145 and 150 seats.

All the three party leaders of Congress,BJP and JDS have expressed confidence today that their own party will get majority and form the government. Siddaramaiah claimed in Mysuru after casting his vote in Varuna constituency that his party will romp back to power with more than 120 seats.

On the other hand BS Yeddyurappa,state BJP president cast his vote in Shikaripura constituency of Shivamogga district and declared that BJP will return to power with full majority. HD Kumarswamy,state JDS president told in Bengaluru that his party will score the magic number.

HD Devegowda,his wife Chennamma,his son HD Revanna and family members cast their votes in 244 number booth of Holenarasipura constituency of Hassan district.Talking to media persons HD Devegowda claimed that the JDS will bag all the seven seats in the district.

HD Kumarswamy and his wife Anitha Kumarswamy,former MLA cast their votes in Ramanagar constituency in Ramanagar district.It may be recalled here that the former chief minister is contesting both,from Ramanagar and neighbouring Channapatna constituencies. Anitha Kumaraswamy had unsuccessfully contested from Channapatna constituency last time and this time around her husband wants to avenge the defeat.

Yaduveer Krishnadutta Chamraj Wodeyar of the Mysuru royal dynasty cast his vote in Mysuru. KJ George,district in charge minister cast his vote in Sarvagnanagar constituency in the city.If Moorusavira Mutt pontiff exercised his franchise in Hubballi,Sri Sri Ravishankar Guruji voted in Kanakapura constituency.

Mallikarjun Kharge,veteran Congress leader voted in Kalaburgi.BS Yeddyurappa, BJP state president meantime has appealed to the voters to be fast in exercising their franchise as the Meteorological department has forecasted rainfall by evening.

Hindusthan Samachar/Manohar Yadavatti

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday offered special prayers at the Pashupatinath temple here.

Modi spent around 30 minutes in the temple after paying homage at the Muktinath temple during his two-day visit to Nepal, largely billed as a religious one.

Nepal’s Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari and other officials welcomed Modi at the Pashupatinath temple, the Kathmandu Post reported.

He is set to meet leaders of various political parties and will be given a lunch reception by Indian Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puri.

He will also attend a civic reception hosted by Kathmandu Metropolitan City before leaving for New Delhi.

Modi arrived in Nepal on Friday. He inaugurated the Janakpur-Ayodhya bus service, a 900 MW Hydropower Project and also announced Rs 100 crore aid to develop Janakpur city.

He also held extensive discussions with his counterpart K.P. Sharma Oli, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and other government officials to better bilateral ties on Friday when he said: “All misunderstandings with Nepal are over.”

In a politically crucial Assembly election ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha battle, millions voted in Karnataka on Saturday with the ruling Congress as well as the BJP and JD-S claiming they will win hands down.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he was “very very confident” that the Congress would retain power in the only major southern state it now rules as officials said more than a third of the over 5.06-crore electorate had voted till 1 p.m.

“Overall percentage of voting in 222 constituencies till 1 p.m. was 36.5 and 28 in Bengaluru city,” said the state’s Additional Chief Electoral Officer B.R. Mamatha.

Around 47 per cent voting was recorded in the coastal district of Dakshina Kannada.

“Voting has been peaceful by and large barring a few incidents of some non-functional EVMs, missing voter names and procedural delays,” another official told IANS.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Chief Ministerial face B.S. Yeddyurappa was among the first to vote at Shikaripura in Shivamogga district. He has claimed that the BJP will secure 140-150 seats and that he will invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his swearing in.

Siddaramaiah ridiculed Yeddyurappa after voting on Saturday, saying the BJP leader was “mentally disturbed” and that the Congress was sure of bagging more than 120 seats.

Janata Dal-Secular chief and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, his wife Chennamma and second son H.D. Revanna cast their votes in their hometown Holenarsipura in Hassan district.

“We expect a possibility of forming the government as we have done well to get a majority,” Deve Gowda told reporters.

Many in Bengaluru lined up outside polling centres since 6.30 a.m. to beat the early rush.

Polling in Bengaluru’s Raja Rajeshwari Nagar segment has been postponed to May 28 following the discovery of voter ID cards and cancelled in the city’s Jayanagar seat following the death of BJP contestant B.N. Vijaya Kumar.

In all, voting is being conducted in 26 of the 28 constituencies in the city.

Karnataka has over 5.06 crore electorate, including 2.6 crore men and 2.5 crore women. A total of 15.42 lakh voters, aged 18-19, have registered for the first time.

The highest number of voters (6.03 lakh) are in Bengaluru South and the lowest (1.7 lakh) at Sringeri in Chikkamagaluru district.

Polling is being held in 58,008 stations in 30 districts, with 600 of them dubbed ‘pink booths’, overseen by women personnel. Over 1.5 lakh security personnel have been deployed.

The vote count will take place on May 15.

In all, 2,654 candidates are in the fray, including 219 women. A total of 222 are from the Congress and BJP each, 201 from JD-S, 1,155 Independents and 800 from other national, regional and fringe parties. About 450 contestants are in the battle from Bengaluru.

Siddaramaiah is contesting from Chamundeshwari at Mysuru and Badami in Bagalkot district.

BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Ballari B.R. Sriramaulu, contesting from two seats including Badami and Molakamuru (reserved) seat in Chitradurga district, on Saturday worshipped a cow and visited temples before voting.

JD-S state president and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy is in the fray from Ramanagara and Channapatna seats. BJP state unit President Yeddyurappa is contesting from Shikaripura in Shivamogga district.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Saturday that he was “very confident” of the ruling Congress retaining power in the southern state by winning over 120 seats.

“We are very confident of retaining power. There is no question of a hung Assembly at all,” an upbeat Siddaramaiah told reporters before voting in Mysuru district, about 150 km southwest of Bengaluru.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Chief Ministerial face, B.S. Yeddyurappa, said earlier that people were with the BJP and that he will form the government by winning 145-150 seats.

“On the evening of May 15, I will go and meet the Prime Minister and invite him for the swearing-in ceremony on May 17,” Yeddyurappa told the media.

Responding to Yeddyurappa, Siddaramaiah said: “Yeddyurappa is mentally disturbed. The Congress will get more than 120 seats.

“Poor people from all communities are with us and the Congress will get a clear majority. There is no doubt, no confusion on this. We will come back to power. We will get more than 120 seats.”

Siddaramaiah, along with his son Yathindra, voted from the Varuna Assembly segment amid cheering outside by scores of supporters.

The Chief Minister is contesting from Chamundeshwari in Mysuru and Badami in Bagalkot district in the state’s northwest region. He has fielded his son Yatindra from his hometown Varuna in Mysuru district.

Brisk polling is taking place on Saturday for 222 of the 224 seats in the Karnataka Assembly.

BJP candidate B. Sreeramulu on Saturday worshipped a cow and then visited temples before voting in the Karnataka Assembly election.

Sreeramulu is contesting from two seats — Badami in Bagalkot and Molakalamuru (reserved) in Chitradurga district.

“He (Sreeramulu) performed ‘gau puja’ at his residence in Ballari for nearly one hour and then visited two temples before casting his vote,” a Bharatiya Janata Party leader told IANS.

Sreeramulu is contesting against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Badami. The 47-year-old was the state’s Health and Family Welfare and Tourism Minister from 2008-11.

He quit the BJP and the cabinet in 2011 protesting against the alleged ill-treatment by the party to his friend, mentor and then cabinet minister and mining baron G. Janardhan Reddy.

He rejoined the BJP and contested the Lok Sabha election in 2014.

The Bengal chief minister’s mildly-worded rebuttal to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi comes against the backdrop of a soft campaign on and off social media that pitches her as the next prime minister.
Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister who has taken the lead role to shape an anti-BJP front, on Friday responded to Rahul Gandhi’s statement that he was ready to be the Prime Minister if the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Ms Banerjee said Mr Gandhi “is free to give his opinion”.

“But the fact is, in the present situation of the country, the Congress can never have a majority of its own,” the Trinamool Congress chief told a Bengali news channel, according to news agency Press Trust of India.

Instead, Ms Banerjee said, the federal front that she and other regional parties promote, will be “the future”.

“Various regional parties will emerge victorious in their respective states. Federal Front of regional parties is the future. If regional parties come together and form a platform, it would be good for the country,” she said

But could she lead this front of regional parties?

Ms Banerjee, 63, didn’t give a clear answer.

Everybody will work like a “united family” and whatever is good for the country will be done, she said.

Ms Banerjee predicated the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti and the Telugu Desam Party will perform well in the Lok Sabha polls.

She also prophesised neither the Congress nor the BJP would get a clear majority in the Karnataka assembly elections. In such a situation, she added, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal Secular would play the kingmaker’s role. Or even be the king.

“The Congress should have worked more tactfully with HD Deve Gowda, it would have helped them,” she said.

The Bengal chief minister’s mildly-worded rebuttal to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi comes against the backdrop of a soft campaign on and off social media that pitches her as the next prime minister. “Let’s get a Bengali Prime Minister this time,” says a campaign on Facebook by Trinamool supporters.

Trinamool leaders also had earlier spoken how their party boss was prime ministerial material and had the right experience to replace PM Narendra Modi.

It is a pitch that grew louder after Rahul Gandhi’s elevation as party chief in December last. His elevation was a signal for many that Rahul Gandhi would be the Congress face for PM in 2019.

It hadn’t gone unnoticed that Ms Banerjee did not congratulate him then nor for the Congress’s improved performance in Gujarat. She, however, congratulated Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani for their poll success.

During her Delhi visit in March when she had advocated making the Akhilesh Yadav-Mayawati combine’s success in defeating the BJP in its stronghold, Gorakhpur, as a template for opposition unity, Ms Banerjee had reached out to Rahul’s mother, Sonia Gandhi, to seek her support.
I told her what the country wants is that there should be a state-wise, one-on-one fight with the BJP… We want the Congress to win Karnataka because the Congress is strong there,” she had then said.