The Karnataka elections have come and gone. The ugly verbal spats in the news and the cutting wit on social media aside, it was a peaceful election. There have been no major incidences of violence. There was no one overly outraged by anything other than the usual news anchors. Even the news debate duels by the panels began to look contrived after a while.

The polling booths were largely peaceful, largely because Kannadigas are a sanguine, temperate lot not given to outbursts of any sort when it does not involve the Kaveri River. But let that not fool you about the drama in the election itself. Exit polls by various eminent psephologists, agencies and media houses made for some inadvertent comedy. To paraphrase witty online banter regarding the exit polls, we don’t know if it will be a hung assembly in Karnataka because the exit polls are also hung. They can’t all agree on the outcome. Half of them back the Congress, the rest the BJP. The only consistent observation is that the Janata Dal will end up kingmaker. Which, again, they do not explain with any degree of certainty.