Why Congress won over voters but lost polls in Karnataka
Party has presence across state so they cornered more votes when compared to single-largest party BJP, which has negligible presence in a few districts.
Published: 16th May 2018 05:38 AM | Last Updated: 16th May 2018 05:38 AM | A+A A-
The vote split essentially was between the Congress and another party bringing the grand old party the huge share of cumulative votes. | File Photo
BENGALURU: The nail-biting finale of the Karnataka assembly elections ended up with no party crossing the halfway mark on Wednesday. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged as the single largest party with a win in 103 seats and lead in 1 seat till 9.15 PM, the Congress had the highest vote share of 38 per cent.
The BJP’s vote share was 36.2 per cent with 1,31,59,117 votes which was far lesser than Congress’ 1,38,00,205. Despite this, the Congress ended up with a mere 78 seats and is now hoping to extend support to the JD(S) to form the government only in an attempt to keep the BJP away from power. The Congress has won lesser seats than the BJP but has a larger vote share thanks to its uniform presence across the state- a phenomenon that is absent for both JD(S) and the BJP.
In many seats, the Congress was in a direct contest with the JD(S) where BJP was a non-entity and in other places, Congress took on BJP where JD(S) is insignificant as a political party.The vote split essentially
was between the Congress and another party bringing the grand old party the huge share of cumulative votes.
In comparison to the BJP that has no real presence in the old Mysuru region or the JD(S) that has no foothold in Coastal Karnataka region, the Congress has a vote share from all regions of the state but this does not translate to seats.The BJP gets its vote share from Bengaluru city, Central Karnataka, Hyderabad Karnataka, Coastal Karnataka and Mumbai Karnataka while the JD(S) gets it from Old Mysuru region and Bengaluru rural.
