BENGALURU: With only hours to go before the announcement of the election results, the BJP government issued an order to increase electricity rates, leaving the people of Karnataka in the dark. Electricity tariff in the state has been increased by 70 paise per unit. As the order of the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission is retrospective, the said amount will have to be paid for electricity usage from April 1.

The rate of electricity for industrial use has been reduced from Rs.6 to Rs.5 per unit. This also applies to data centres in the state. The unit charge at EV charging stations has been reduced from Rs 5 to Rs 4.50 per unit.

At the same time, exit polls predicted a close fight in the Karnataka assembly elections. Out of the seven survey results, five show that the Congress will be the single largest party. Only two surveys suggest that the BJP may return to power. With this, the position of the third party Janata Dal and HD Kumaraswamy will be decisive.

The Congress was leading in most of the opinion polls conducted before the elections. No one got a majority in the 2018 elections. BJP was the single largest party at that time. At that time, the Congress and Janata Dal formed a joint government, replacing the BJP, but after a year, the BJP overthrew the government and got the government with the dissident MLAs of the Congress and the Dal. Then BJP ruled for four years.