The 224-seat Karnataka Assembly will go to polls on May 10 with results rebounding on May 13, announced the Election Commission of India on Wednesday.

The EC held a press conference at Plenary Hall, Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital.

Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said that the focus will be on conducting a free, fair, inclusive and transparent elections in the state.

Karnataka currently has 119 MLAs of the ruling BJP, while Congress has 75 and its ally JD(S) has 28 seats. The current term of the assembly ends on May 24, 2023.

Out of the total 224 seats, 36 seats have been reserved for SC category and 15 for the ST category in the Karnataka Assembly.

The state has 5.21 crore registered voters including 2.62 crore males and 2.59 crore females . “First-time voters have increased from 2018-19 by 9.17 lakhs in Karnataka. All young voters who are turning 18 years of age by April 1, will be able to vote in Karnataka Assembly elections,” highlighted CEC Kumar while announcing the schedule.

The total number of 80+ electors stood at 12.15 lakhs. For the first time, the election commission will be providing home polling facility for 80+ senior citizens, benchmarked PwD voters.A total of 58,282 polling stations will be set up across the state out of which 1,320 stations will be managed by women exclusively. This has been done to ensure active participation of women in the process with focus on women empowerment, said Rajiv Kumar, CEC.

With months to go for the Assembly elections, the political parties including the ruling BJP, Congress and ally JD(S) began the spate of allegations and counter-allegations, with the latter attempting to corner the government over the issue of corruption.

The BJP government, being led by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is also putting in efforts to return to power and stressing on the Kannadigas issue, reservation to the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities by scrapping a religion-based reservation for the Muslim community, a decision which the state government took recently.

The government, last year, had proposed that the companies that do not give first preference to Kannadigas will not be eligible for incentives. The government’s move came in the later part of last year in a bid to promote Kannada. It was included in the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development Bill.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has made several visits to Karnataka, a state which he has described on numerous occasions as the BJP’s “gateway to the South”.

Shah on Monday chaired a meeting with the state BJP core committee and election management committee in Bengaluru on Monday.

Earlier on Sunday, Amit Shah lauded Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and his immediate predecessor and BJP veteran BS Yediyurappa stating that both have provided “good governance” during their respective tenures.

Citing the developmental work done by the BJP government under both chief ministers, Shah urged the people to form the party’s government with a full majority in the upcoming Assembly elections slated this year.

In February last year, Amit Shah urged the people to give a chance to former chief minister BS Yediyurappa for forming a corruption-free government.

He said that Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) are dynastic parties and such parties can never work for the welfare of the people.

“Give a chance to Yediyurappa and we will give you a corruption-free government. Congress and JDS are dynastic parties and such parties can never work for the welfare of the people. Every vote polled for JDS will benefit the Congress party, and every vote polled for Congress will benefit Siddaramaiah and his ATM government in Delhi,” he said.