About 40 percent of the 43.6 million voters cast their ballots till 2 p.m. in the 14th Karnataka assembly polls Sunday to decide the fate of the first BJP government in south India, an official said in Bangalore.

The capital city which has earned notoriety for low polling, the balloting pace had yet not picked up as only 30 percent of the city's seven million voters exercised their franchise, an election official told reporters.