As voting ends, majority of exit polls predict hung assembly for Karnataka with slight edge for Congress

According to the exit polls, HD Kumaraswamy's Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) is likely to play the kingmaker.

The majority mark in the 224-seat assembly is 113 seats.

Only one exit poll – Zee News Matrize agency – has predicted a safe win for the Congress, giving the party 118 seats. Another has predicted an upper limit of 117 for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

According to the Republic TV-P MARQ, the state's ruling BJP will win 85-100 of the 224 assembly seats, the Congress will win 94-108, and the JD(S) 24-32 seats. 

The TV 9-Bharatvansh-Polstrat predicted 88-98 seats for the BJP, 99-109 seats for the Congress, and 21-26 seats for the JD(S).

According to Zee News Matrize has predicted 79-94 seats for the BJP and 103-118 seats for the Congress and 25-33 seas for the JD(S).

The ABP News-C Voter meanwhile, predicted 83-95 seats for the BJP, 100-112 21-29 for the Congress, and 2-6 for the JD(S).

Polling for the 224-member Karnataka Legislative Assembly concluded at 6 pm on Wednesday with the state recording 65.69 percent voter turnout.

In the eight hours of voting, which began at 7 am, Ramanagara recorded the highest turnout of 63.36 percent, while the lowest polling was seen in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) South limits (parts of Bengaluru city) with 40.28 percent, election officials said.