Even though the governor remains the ceremonial head of the state, the day-to-day running of the government is taken care of by the chief minister and their council of ministers in whom a great amount of legislative powers are vested.

In 1997, Bagalkot district was carved out of Vijayapura district, Chamrajnagar out of Mysore, Gadag out of Dharwad, Haveri out of Dharwad, Koppal out of Raichur, Udupi out of Dakshina Kannada and Yadgir out of Kalaburagi.

Davanagere district was created from parts of Bellary, Chitradurga, Dharwad and Shimoga.

[2] The Legislative Council is a permanent body with one-third of its members retiring every two years.

Even though the governor remains the ceremonial head of the state, the day-to-day running of the government is taken care of by the chief minister and their council of ministers in whom a great deal of legislative powers is vested..

Following elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, the state's governor usually invites the party (or coalition) with a majority of seats to form the government.

[4] This is a 3-tier system in the state with elected bodies at the village (grama), taluka and district (zilla) levels.

It ensures greater participation of people and effective implementation of rural development programs.

All the 3 institutions are made up of elected representatives and there is no provision for nomination by the governor to any of these councils.

Karnataka was the first state in the country to enact the Panchayat Raj Act, incorporating all provisions of the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution.

The Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department conducts exams to recruit candidates for the service.

They are trained under the Abdul Nazeer Sab State Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (ANSSIRDPR), Mysuru.

The Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act, 1993 (5) was substituted by Act 44 of 2015 with effect from 25.02.2016, as follows: CHAPTER XVI 1 [Administration, Inspection, Supervision and Creation of Commissionerate of Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj] Section 232B of the Constitution of the Karnataka Panchayat Administrative Service: The Government shall constitute a Karnataka Panchayat Administrative Service consisting of such category of posts from the rural development and panchayat raj department, the number of posts, scale of pay, method of recruitment and minimum qualifications shall be such as may be prescribed].

In recent election conducted in May 2023, the Indian National Congress won in a landslide by getting 135 seats.

After his resignation H. D. Kumaraswamy was sworn in as the Chief Minister on 23 May 2018 with absolute majority support from Congress total of 117.

On 23 July 2019 the government headed by H. D. Kumaraswamy fell short of majority in the trust vote due to the resignation of 17 MLAs from the Congress and the JDS.