Speaking at the inauguration of the Indian Institute of Technology, Dharwad in March, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai claimed that there was “minimum unemployment” in Karnataka and the Union government was behind the creation of 33 lakh jobs in the State in the past five years, with 13 lakh created in the past year alone.
However, the Lokniti-CSDS post-poll survey data show that unemployment was the biggest voting issue for voters in the State. Asked an open-ended question, close to three in 10 voters (30%) stated unemployment to be the biggest issue while voting in this election (Table 1).
