BENGALURU: THE BJP continued its winning streak in the state by sweeping the crucial bypolls, while exposing a deep rot within the Congress which failed to halt its slide, and decimating the Janata Dal (S), which was hoping for political uncertainty to catapult itself onto the political centre-stage.
The poll results further bolstered BJP’s efforts to make it a truly pan-Karnataka party, making inroads into Old Mysore region, which had hitherto remained the bastion of the JDS and Congress.In the 2018 assembly polls, the party had done well across Karnataka, but fallen short of getting a simple majority, as it had not done as well as expected in Old Mysore region and Bengaluru.
In Old Mysore region, JDS had managed to retain its hold, while in Bengaluru, the Congress had outdone BJP, despite a high-voltage campaign led by party president Amit Shah. Even in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had failed to win only two LS seats — Hassan and Bangalore Rural — in the same region.
Bypoll results effectively changed those equations with the BJP doing well in Bengaluru, winning three of four seats, and for the first time winning a seat each in Mandya (KR Pet) and Chikkaballapura.“BJP’s winnability was expected as there was a pro-BJP trend at the ground level. However, Congress and JDS made a mess of themselves in the past two years. That was proved again in the bypolls,” political analyst Prof Harish Ramaswamy told TNIE.
Though all 15 seats that went to polls on December 5 were won by the Congress and JDS in the 2018 elections, the two parties this time around failed to put up even a decent fight in most of those seats. Big victory margins were a clear indication that it was a decisive victory for BJP candidates.
The results will shake up the faction-ridden Congress, that failed to go to elections as one cohesive fighting unit. Siddaramaiah, who took moral responsibility and tendered his resignation to the posts of Congress Legislature Party chief and Leader of Opposition on Monday, had almost single-handedly fought the BJP’s well-planned election campaign led by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. Congress lacked collective leadership, a clear strategy and crucial resources to fight the bypolls.
According to Prof. Ramaswamy, the results exposed the lack of a strong Lingayat leader in North Karnataka, and failure to consolidate the Vokkaliga support base. A section of the community members was upset with the BJP government at the Centre and had even hit the streets when former minister DK Shivakumar was jailed in a money laundering case.
The party had also hoped to make the most of public anger against delays in allocating funds to provide relief to people hit by the worst-ever floods in the state. The Congress’s major drawback was that party leaders lost the plot in the middle of the elections, when they first spoke about mid-term polls and later formed an alliance with the JDS.
The humiliating defeat would also put the stress on the JDS, as it will not be easy for the party to keep its MLAs together for the next three-and-a-half years. The only solace now, however, is that the BJP may no longer need to procure MLAs from other parties.