The Congress recorded major gains in seats where young voters, those aged below 39, formed a majority of the electorate. The party was on course to win a comfortable majority of seats in the Karnataka Assembly election.
A Business Standard analysis of data provided by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka revealed that there were 40 assembly constituencies in Karnataka where the percentage of registered voters aged 19-39—youth voters—were the majority. In these seats, there were 4.8 million young voters out of a total 9.2 million.
The Indian National Congress won in 27 out of the 40 constituencies, while the incumbent Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) was leading in only 8. In the 2018 Karnataka Assembly election, the INC had won in 19 of these constituencies, while the BJP had won in 16.
The third principal party, Janata Dal (Secular), was leading in three constituencies, compared to the five it had won last time.
Among the constituencies, in Devadurga, which has the highest share of youth voters at 55.98 per cent, Karemma G Nayak of the JD(S) won the seat bagging 98,914 votes, according to the Election Commission.
In Hagaribommanahalli, where 55.58 per cent are youth voters, the second highest, Nemarajanaik K of JD(S) won against the incumbent L B P Bheema Naik of the Congress. In the constituency with the third highest share of youth voters Channareddy Patil Tunnur of the Congress won with 53,802 votes defeating the incumbent Venkatreddy Mudnal of the BJP.
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Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha leader and mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy won from Gangawati, which has 53.66 per cent youth voters, while Latha Mallikarjun, an independent candidate, won in Harapanahalli, where youth voters account for 51.65 per cent of the electorate.
According to the latest data available on the Election Commission website the Congress candidates have already won 134 seats and were leading in 2 other constituencies, taking its tally to 136 out of 224 assembly constituencies.
