A day ahead of the polling, the Karnataka State Contractors Association (KSCA) has written a letter alleging that the corruption in the state has reached “frightening levels,” and?urged people to cast their votes in “accordance with their conscience.”

Voting for?224-member Legislative Assembly begins today.?A total of 5,31,33,054 electors are eligible to cast their votes in 58,545 polling stations across the state. As many as 2,615 candidates are in the fray, including 2,430 male, 184 female and one from the third gender.?

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh shared the letter on his Twitter handle and said, "The Karnataka State Contractors Association has written another letter - this time to the voters. PM Modi never replied to their pleas against the?BJP's 40% Commission government. Tomorrow the people of Karnataka will reply for him.”

“Corruption has reached frightening levels in our beloved state. The 40 per cent commission in public projects has already claimed the lives of several contractors; the public too is forced to live with defective, dangerous, and life-threatening infrastructure,” the letter said.

It further urged people to?cast their vote in "accordance with their conscience”.?“Democracy works when people cast their vote in accordance with their conscience. Corruption deeply hurts our collective conscience," the letter said.

The KSCA President D Kempanna had earlier written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that contractors had to shell out 40 per cent commission in public projects, a charge which the Congress had made it a key campaign issue to target the ruling BJP in Karnataka.

However,?the contractors' association had earlier claimed that no investigation was done in the matter, according to reports.

(With inputs from PTI)