Dheeksha Mahesh@NFC
You must be seeing a lot of campaigning by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. You must have heard your parents talking about Karnataka elections, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka BJP leader Yeddyurappa and others.
What is this elections about?
Siddaramaiah was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Karnataka on May 13, 2013. According to the Indian constitution, the five years rule is coming to an end and people of the state have to elect a new CM through direct elections.
Whom are citizens voting for?
The Karnataka legislature has two houses – Legislative Assembly (Vidhana Sabha or lower house) and Legislative Council ( Vidhana Parishad or upper house). We are electing the Members for Legislative Assembly. So they are popularly called as MLA (members of legislative assembly).
Karnataka is divided into 224 constituencies and one member is elected from each constituency. People across Karnataka cast their vote for any one contesting candidate in their respective constituency or the constituency they belong to.
Who will form the government?
For a party to declare victorious, they should get at-least minimum majority seats that is more than 50% to form the government. If none of the parties get a clear majority then few parties come together and form a coalition government. Those who got elected but lost as they dint get minimum majority and could not form the government will become the opposition party.
Below is a pictorial representation of the 3 organs of the government State and Centre in India, a parliamentary form of government. Governor and President is the head of the executive respectively.
