The Congress party on Wednesday swept aside the BJP, winning 121 seats in the 224-seat Assembly, well over the magic figure of 113. The result was a clear signal that the people of Karnataka, who had suffered three chief ministers in five years of BJP corruption and misrule, wanted a stable government and had put governance first.
Punishing a slew of state Cabinet ministers — 12 ministers lost their seats, including the two caught watching porn in the Assembly — the BJP was faced with the ignominy of tying with the JD(S) at 40 seats each, but may be able to save a few blushes by laying claim to being the main Opposition in the House on the basis of votes cast, which were marginally higher than those for the JD(S).
The Congress’ overwhelming victory was largely due to the three-cornered contests where a fledgling Karnataka Janata Party led by the angry old man of Karnataka, former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, ate into the BJP’s votes in the Lingayat heartland but left him with no more than six seats, ending his dreams of playing a larger role nationally as a regional satrap.
The mandate, against the fractured verdict of 2004 and the near fractured verdict of 2008, has seen the BJP, which came to power for the first time in south India in 2008, severely weakened in its former stronghold in the Hyderabad-Karnataka and Bombay-Karnataka regions, as well as the coastal districts where even the BJP’s star campaigner, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, was unable to turn the tide in the BJP’s favour.
Elections were held for 223 constituencies, while the election for Piriyapatna constituency, which was countermanded due to the death of the BJP candidate, is scheduled for May 25.
Interestingly, the Congress party won 27 seats from Hyderabad-Karnataka and Bombay-Karnataka, winning a whopping 58 seats in the Lingayat heartland. In Bangalore division, the party got 38 seats vis-à-vis 24 seats last time and in Mysore division it showed an increase of six seats from 20 to 26.
The BJP, however, was punished for holding on to corrupt and tainted ministers and its pro-Hindutva candidates. Local BJP leaders privately admitted that their strong voter base among women had eroded in coastal Karnataka while Lingayats, the largest community in the state and perceived as loyal to the BJP, showed their anger towards the BJP for their inability to safeguard the majority community’s interests.
Mr Yeddyurappa’s KJP, which dealt a body blow to the BJP in these elections, came a close second in 36 constituencies in north Karnataka districts. Of these, 22 were held by the BJP in the last Assembly. In over 50 constituencies in the Hyderabad and Bombay Karnataka regions, votes polled by the BJP and KJP together were higher than the votes of the victorious Congress candidates. This clearly indicated that the Congress benefited from the BJP infighting. One of the fallouts was the ignominious defeat of deputy CM K.S. Eshwarappa in Shimoga, the home district of Mr Yeddyurappa.
Congress sources said the party had also struck gold with Muslims, who came out as a community to vote en masse for it, a phenomenon that had eluded the party in several previous elections. Besides this, the possibility of the Congress making a Kuruba (from the shepherd community) leader the CM seemed to have prompted the Kurubas (nearly eight per cent of the population) to rally behind the Congress. The Congress’ most embarrassing moment could be the defeat of the KPCC president, Dr G. Parameshwar, who lost his Koratagere constituency by over 18,000 votes.
Another breakaway faction of the BJP, the BSR Congress, the brainchild of the Reddy brothers, managed to open its account with four seats.