Karnataka appeared headed for a hung assembly once again with an exit poll on a news channel predicting the Congress as the single largest party, closely followed by BJP.

The exit poll on CNN-IBN gave Congress 86 to 95 seats in the 224-member house followed by BJP 79 to 90 and JD(S) 45 -- all far away from the half-way mark of 112.

It also predicted 14 seats for 'others' at the end of the third round of polling in the state on Thursday.

In the 2004 elections in the state, the BJP emerged as the single largest party, but chose to sit in the opposition after Congress and JD(S) joined hands to form a coalition government.

After the collapse of the Dharam Singh ministry, the JD(S) formed a coalition government with BJP, but that too did not last the full term, paving the way for imposition of President's Rule and dissolution of the House.

The state saw three chief ministers from as many parties -- Dharam Singh (Congress), H D Kumaraswamy (JD-S) and B S Yeddyurappa (BJP) in three-and-a-half years.

The exit poll had a sample size of 4,348 voters spread across 92 locations.