Clear majority for Congress in Karnataka forecasts Today’s Chanakya Exit Poll
Mangaluru: Alongside, India Today-Axis My India, Today's Chanakya has also predicted a substantial victory for the Congress in the Karnataka Assembly elections, as the exit poll results have been unveiled. Today's Chanakya's Exit Polls indicate a clear majority for the Congress with 120 seats, followed by 92 seats for the BJP and 12 seats for JD(S).
According to Today's Chanakya, the Congress is expected to attain a vote share of 42%, while the BJP is projected to receive a vote share of 39%. The JD(S) is anticipated to secure a vote share of 13%, while other parties are predicted to have a combined vote share of 6%.
In terms of seat distribution, Today's Chanakya's exit poll predicts 120 seats for the Congress, 92 seats for the BJP, 12 seats for the JD(S), and no seats for other parties.
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Furthermore, Today's Chanakya exit poll reveals that 40% of the voters cast their votes based on the issue of corruption. Meanwhile, 26% of the votes were influenced by the candidate or party, while 19% focused on development matters. Only 6% of the voters considered local issues in the state. The remaining 4% of the voters based their decision on other factors, as per Today's Chanakya.
The Karnataka assembly election was conducted on May 10 for the legislative assembly for 244 seats. According to the official announcement by the Election Commission, the state recorded a voter turnout of approximately 65.69 percent until 5pm.
A total of 2,615 candidates across different parties contested in the Karnataka assembly election, with the electoral fate of these candidates at stake. The election witnessed a high-decibel campaign as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, and the Janata Dal (Secular) sparred with each other and deployed prominent leaders to appeal to the voters.
During the campaign, the Congress faced controversy over its manifesto, which included a promise to ban the Bajrang Dal. In response, the party attempted to shift its campaign focus back to bread-and-butter issues and highlighted alleged corruption under the incumbent BJP government.
On the other hand, the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, emphasized its commitment to banning the Bajrang Dal and highlighted perceived mistakes made by the Congress party's designated translator during a campaign rally addressed by Sonia Gandhi.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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