Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah wave to media at BJP headquarters in New Delhi on May 15, 2018. India's southern state of Karnataka, where counting of votes is almost in its final rounds, was heading towards a hung assembly with no political party seemingly reaching the half-way mark of 112. The country's main ruling party BJP has emerged as the single largest party, as it is expected to win nearly 104 Assembly constituencies, while its main rival the Indian National Congress (INC) expected to win around 80 assembly constituencies followed by the state-level party the Janata Dal (Secular) with around 37 assembly constituencies.(Xinhua/Partha Sarkar)
NEW DELHI, May 15 (Xinhua) -- India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears all set to form the next government in the country's southern state of Karnataka which went to polls on May 12.
The state is currently ruled by the country's main opposition party the Indian National Congress (INC).
Vote counting is still underway, but the latest trends showed that the BJP would win in around 113 Assembly constituencies out of the 222 constituencies that went to polls.
There are 224 Assembly constituencies in the state. Results in two Assembly constituencies would be announced later, as re-polling was conducted in some segments in those two Assembly constituencies.
In order to form a government in the state, a party must win at least half, or 112 of the Assembly constituencies.
According to the latest tally shown by the Election Commission of India's (ECI) website on Tuesday, the BJP is leading in as many as 113 Assembly constituencies, while the INC is leading in 66 Assembly constituencies and a state-level party the Janata Dal (Secular) leading in 38 Assembly constituencies.
In terms of vote share, the ECI website showed that the INC got around 38 percent of total votes, while the BJP was slightly behind at 37.2 percent of the total votes. The Janata Dal (Secular) was behind at over 17 percent of the total votes polled.
Final results are expected to be announced late Tuesday.
If the INC loses Karnataka, the party would be left with only two states, namely Punjab in the north and Puducherry in the south, where it runs government.
