Indian National Congress' Prakash Koliwad won in Ranibennur with 71,208 votes, followed by Bharatiya Janata Party's Arunkumar Guttur with 61,251 votes. Ranibennur (General) is a constituency for the state Assembly situated in the Mumbai Karnataka region. The semi-urban constituency is a part of the Haveri constituency.

The constituency has 2,23,209 voters in total. The number of male voters are 1,14,468, while female voters are 1,08,729, and 12 voters identify as other. The constituency has a Scheduled Caste population of 11.2 percent, and scheduled tribe population of 7.9 percent. Ranibennur has an approximate literacy rate of 77 percent.

R Shankar of Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) won this seat in 2018, defeating Congress candidate Bheemappa Koliwad by a margin of over 4,000 votes. Shankar secured 35.7 percent of the total votes polled.

R Shankar left KPJP, and joined the BJP, however, was disqualified along 16 other legislators in 2019. He is contesting the seat as an Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) member this year.

Karnataka Assembly election 2023

This year, three parties - the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) - are vying for power in the state. The BJP is focused on retaining its hold on the state, while the Congress is determined to recapture the seats it lost in the previous election.

Senior JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy has confidently stated that his party will secure a majority with 123 seats and form the government independently.

There are a total of 58,282 polling stations, of which 28,866 fall in urban areas. The average number of voters per polling station is 883. The Election Commission of India said it has identified sensitive booths where it will deploy a three-pronged approach.

There are a total of 5.21 crore voters in the state, which includes 2.59 women voters and 2.62 crore male voters.

Of the total voters, 12.15 lakh voters are above the age of 80, 16,976 are above the age of 100, 4,699 are third gender and 9.17 lakh are first-time voters. The Election Commission has said that it will set up special booths for vulnerable tribal groups and transgenders.

There are 9.17 lakh first-time voters in Karnataka. In a first, the ECI has also made voting from home available in the state for people above 80 years of age and those with disabilities in the upcoming elections.

Catch minute-to-minute Karnataka election result updates here

First Published:May 13, 2023 11:12 AM IST