BENGALURU: The Congress on Saturday swept the Assembly polls in Karnataka by securing a comfortable majority in the 224-member House, riding on a strong anti-incumbency wave against the BJP-ruled state government and on its sustained campaign woven around five poll guarantees.
In a big win ahead of Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana as well as the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Congress won 136 seats with a vote share of 43%. Compared to the 2018 Assembly polls, its vote share went up by 5% and seats by 58.
Congress did well in all regions, except Coastal Karnataka, where BJP managed to hold its ground. In the Old Mysuru region, the party made big gains at the expense of Janata Dal (Secular) which took a big hit in a do-or-die battle.
The regional party’s vote share dropped from 18.36% to 13.3% and seats from 37 to 19. The party that was hoping to play a crucial role in the formation of the next government in case of a fractured mandate, ended up with its worst-ever performance.
The BJP managed to retain its vote share of 36.22% in 2018 as it polled 36% this election. Although BJP gained new voters in Old Mysuru that were not converted into seats, that cut into JD(S)’s votes and helped Congress. In Bengaluru, the BJP managed to retain its number of seats at 15 of the total 28. Surprisingly, the BJP lost all seats in its stronghold of Kodagu.
Congress’s decisive victory in Karnataka came as a big boost for AICC president Mallikarjuna Kharge’s leadership. Kharge and other central leaders managed to ensure that the party worked as one cohesive unit, and their leaders stopped publicly expressing their chief ministerial ambitions. However, even if they hadn’t, the BJP which was looking to exploit the Congress’ fault lines, was never given that opportunity.
Congress carefully crafted its strategy to show that its chief ministerial aspirants — former CM Siddaramaiah and state Congress president D K Shivakumar — were on the same page on all issues.
Its poll guarantee cards that were distributed among voters were signed by both of them and all its election materials had their photographs.
As the results started trickling in, Shivakumar, teary-eyed and choking with emotion, attributed the win to the party workers, while Siddaramaiah called it a mandate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Cong’s ‘40% corruption’ charge played a big role
Its sustained campaign against corruption, 40% corruption, price rise, unemployment, and governance deficit seems to have had an impact on the voters. Many senior BJP leaders, including ministers and the party’s national general secretary C T Ravi, lost, indicating that apart from local factors, there was anger against the ruling party and its leaders and BJP’s last-minute efforts made no impact.
BJP’s experiment of fielding a large number of new faces to beat anti-incumbency and its social engineering of increasing reservation quota failed to impress the voters. They were also not swayed by emotional issues, which took centre-stage in the political debate at the fag end of electioneering, while communal issues that hogged the headlines for several months seem to have had an impact on the voters while side-tracking what BJP termed as its development agenda.
Unlike in 2018, when BJP won 104 seats, this time its Lingayat strongman B S Yediyurappa was not at the helm of affairs as the party went to polls with Basavaraj Bommai as the CM. Ever since Yediyurappa resigned as CM in 2021, Congress made concerted attempts to woo the dominant Lingayat community back into its fold. That effort seems to have paid off. However, former CM Jagadish Shettar, a Lingayat leader, who left BJP and contested elections as a Congress candidate failed to retain his seat.
BJP had heavily depended on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma and its central leadership and its candidates were announced just days before the filing of nominations giving them hardly any time to prepare, while Congress was working on the ground much ahead. At one point, it looked as though Congress state leaders were pitted against the might of BJP’s central leadership. The PM addressed 19 rallies and six roadshows, including in Bengaluru, in the last leg of electioneering.
As soon as results started coming in, Congress got into a celebratory mood with workers dancing outside its state headquarters and leaders talking about government formation. It will soon start the process of electing the legislature party leader and next CM, which is the next big challenge.
For its part, the BJP conceded defeat much before the final results came in. “I will take full responsibility for the defeat,” said Bommai, who won for the fourth time from his home constituency Shiggaon in Haveri district. “We accept the verdict of the people of Karnataka with due respect. We will take this verdict in our stride. We will analyse and correct our faults and rebuild the party and come back during the Lok Sabha election next year.”
While the BJP leaders will introspect on the reasons for the defeat, the results have put a big question mark on JD(S)’s future and its wherewithal to fight national parties.
BJP’S QUOTA POLITICS FAILED TO IMPRESS
Bharatiya Janata Party’s experiment of fielding a large number of new faces to beat
anti-incumbency and its social engineering of increasing reservation quota failed to impress the voters.
14 MINISTERS TROUNCED
As many as 14 ministers of the ruling BJP were defeated at the hustings. V Somanna
lost from Varuna and Chamarajanagar, the two segments he contested from.
R Ashoka too contested from two seats. He was re-elected from Padmanabhanagar but lost in Kanakapura