BENGALURU: In the words of Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...it was the spring of hope”. As Karnataka renounced lotus and held the hand of the Grand Old Party, BJP’s presence was predominantly reduced to Bengaluru, where the turnout was tepid on polling day. Despite a heap of problems like bad roads, crawling traffic, and sloppy Metro works, the saffron camp managed to garner some seats amidst a Congress wave.
Of the 28 seats in Bengaluru, BJP won 16 and Congress 12, while JDS and AAP failed to open their accounts. In 2018, Congress won 15, BJP 11, and JDS two. However, the equations changed after the 2019 by-polls which were necessitated by Congress and JDS MLAs joining BJP to help form its government. BJP had won KR Puram, Yeshwanthpur, Mahalakshmi Layout and RR Nagar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshows on May 6 and 7, on which the state unit had banked, gave them the required push, with some of their candidates winning narrowly.
The campaign blitzkrieg by central and state leadership also helped boost the morale of party workers to up their game and overcome the anti-incumbency factor, especially in Mahadevapura, RR Nagar, KR Puram and Yelahanka. Bengalureans took into consideration flooding, demolition drives, and other civic issues as they walked into polling booths.
Political experts said that low voter turnout and a cosmopolitan population have played key roles in deciding the winners. Experienced leaders like Dr CN Ashwath Narayan (Malleswaram), R Ashoka (Padmanabhanagar), SR Vishwanath (Yelahanka), Ravi Subramanya (Basavanagudi), ST Somashekar (Yeshwanthpur) and Suresh Kumar (Rajajinagar) managed to retain their seats.
Congress stalwarts who defended their seats are: Ramalinga Reddy (BTM Layout), BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan (Chamrajpet), M Krishnappa (Vijayanagar), Dinesh Gundu Rao (Gandhinagar), KJ George (Sarvagna Nagar) and Krishna Byregowda (Bytarayanapura).