Karnataka is voting in two phases this election. The southern half of the state - 14 seats out of 28 - voted on Thursday. The remaining 14 seats will vote next Tuesday. The north of the state is not considered a region where the Janata Dal Secular is very strong. The party, running a coalition government in Karnataka with the Congress, has a base in southern Karnataka, in the belt where the dominant caste are the Vokkaligas, to which Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy belongs. But the Chief Minister says that its support in the northern region will be valuable to help the coalition candidates fight the BJP there.
