The voters of Karnataka gave an unclear verdict on Tuesday, leaving BJP eight seats short of a simple majority and creating space for the Congress and the Janata Dal(S) to come together to make a bid for power with the Congress proposing HD Kumaraswamy’s name as chief ministerial candidate of the post-poll alliance.
After a high voter turnout, the Election Commission announced that the Congress won 38 per cent of votes as against BJP’s 36.2 per cent. The JD(S) headed by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda got 18.4 per cent votes.
Even though Karnataka verdict is fractured, the voters have clearly rejected the ruling Congress Government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who lost his seat at Chamundeshwari but won at Badami.
This verdict also raises question marks on the ability of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to lead the party to revival. A victory in Karnataka would have been a perfect gift for Rahul, who was facing his first electoral challenge after taking over as the party president from his mother, Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress’ attempt to divide the lingayat community also did not pay dividends. So did it attempts to consolidate the Dalit and tribal voters. The party is now left with only Punjab and Puducherry.
The victory for BJP in costal Karnataka, central Karnataka, Mumbai Karnataka and Malnad area helped it to get close to halfway mark. The issue of corruption, development, appeasement politics of backward communities waned into insiginificance after the powerful campaign by Prime Minister Naredra Modi.
Siddaramaiah tried to counter the PM word for word, but failed to decimate the JD(S), which harmed the prospects of the Congress on several seats.
Incidentally, Siddaramaiah became the first Chief Minister since Devraj Urs (1972-77) to complete a full five-year term in office.
Siddaramaiah suffered a humiliating defeat in Chamundeshwari where he lost to G T Deve Gowda of the JD(S) by over 36,000 votes, but managed to win Badami by a slender margin against BJP’s B Sreeramulu, a sitting saffron party MP and close aide of the controversial Reddy brothers.
lingayat strongman and BJPs chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa won at Shikharipura by a huge margin against his Congress rival. He slammed the Congress for trying to grab power after being rejected by the people of Karnataka.
“The people have rejected the Congress and accepted the BJP. People are moving towards ‘Congress-mukt Karnataka’. Now they’re trying to grab power despite facing rejection,” he said at a Press conference.
Yeddyurappa disparaged this move by the Congress joining hands with JD(S) as “back-door politics” and accused the party of disprespecting the mandate of the people, which was in the BJP’s favour.
“The Congress is trying to subvert the mandate through dubious means. This kind of back-door politics by the Congress should be condemned,” he said.
HD Kumaraswamy who is playing a revival politics in Karnataka has contested from Ramanagara and Chennapattana won from both the places consolidating vokkaliga votes.
Incidentally, three out of seven rebel JD(S) MlAs, who had joined the Congress, won their seats with a comfortable margin. The rebel MlAs had resigned from Karnataka legislative Assembly on March 24, a day after they cross-voted in favour of the Congress candidates in the Rajya Sabha biennial election in the State.
Of these MlAs who contested on Congress ticket, three retained their seats, while four suffered defeat, the data showed. R Akhanda Srinivasmurthy emerged victorious from Pulakeshinagar in Bengaluru district, defeating JD(S) candidate B Prasannakumar by 81,626 votes.
Similarly, Zameer Ahmed Khan won from Chamrajpet in Bengaluru urban district. He defeated BJP’s M lakshminaraya by 33,137 votes.
Also, Bheema Naik retained his Hagaribommanhalli seat in Bellary district by defeating BJP’s K Nemiraja Naik by 7,232 votes.
However, HC Balakrishna lost his Magadi seat in Ramanagaram district to JD (S) candidate A Manjunath by 51,425 votes, while N Chaluvarayaswamy failed to secure his Nagamangala seat in Mandya district and was defeated by Congress’ Suresh Gowda by 47,667 votes.
AB Ramesha Bandisiddegowda too could not retain Srirangapattana seat in Mandya district, where JD (S) candidate Ravindra Srikantaiah won by 43,688 votes. Similarly, Iqbal Ansari lost his Gangawati seat in Koppal district to BJP’s P Eshwarappa Munavalli by 7,973 votes.