BENGALURU: It was target 123 for the Janata Dal (Secular). If not, “visarjane madutheve” (dissolve the party), former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy had reportedly said before elections. Faced with a humiliating defeat even in its strongholds -- the party managed to win only 19 seats -- the question before the JDS today is one of relevance. It failed to retain 18 of the 37 seats it had won in 2018.
Kumaraswamy was not available for comment, but tweeted, “Defeat is not new to our family; previously HD Deve Gowda, HD Revanna and myself had faced defeats” and that his “unrelenting efforts and struggles will continue’’.
The party’s Pancharatna Yatre, just before elections were announced, was a tremendous success with a sizable turnout of supporters across 103 constituencies, but failed to translate into votes in more than 80 seats.
A vote share analysis shows the Vokkaliga vote has moved in unprecedented numbers from the JDS to the Congress, accounting for close to 20 lakh voters. The JDS’ vote share dropped by 5 per cent, from 18 per cent to a mere 13.3 per cent.
The big shock for JDS is the loss of Nikhil Kumaraswamy in the party’s pocket borough of Ramanagara, where there are more than 1 lakh Vokkaliga votes. Holenarasipur strongman and former minister HD Revanna too scraped through with a small margin. The list of losers is long and includes big names like former ministers Bandeppa Kashempur and Sa Ra Mahesh, and former Nagathan MLA Devanand Chavan.
The party has been on a downslide since 1999 when the Janata Dal split into the JDS and JDU. The JDS won 58 seats in 2004 but fell to 28 in 2008 when voters penalised it for not transferring power to the BJP, as promised. It bounced back in 2013 with 40 seats, faced by a BJP fractured into three -- BJP, Karnataka Janata Paksha and Badavara Shramikara Raithara Congress.
“The party is fading into irrelevance,” said political analyst B S Murthy. Asked whether the BJP could capitalise on the JDS loss, ideologue Dr Vaman Acharya said, “The BJP needs to work towards it.’’