KARNATAKA: BJP COULD HAVE BEEN RESTRICTED BELOW 70 SEATS IF CONGRESS, JD-S HAD FOUGHT TOGETHER

In the recent Karnataka Assembly elections, BJP won 104 seats but if Congress and JD-S had formed alliance before election, which they did after results, the saffron party could not have crossed even 70

Caravan News

BENGALURU: The Congress has barely managed to retain power in Karnataka as it quickly formed post-poll alliance with arch rival JD-S, BJP just fell short of the majority mark and failed to create cracks in Congress or JD-S. But if Congress and JD-S had fought the election together, the saffron party could not have even crossed 70 in the 122-member Assembly.

In the Assembly elections whose results were announced on 15^th May, BJP won 104 seats, raising its tally from 40 in the previous poll. While Congress went down from 122 to 78 seats, JD-S almost maintained its position as it won 37 – in the last poll, it had won 40 seats.

What helped the BJP push its tally from 40 to 104 is the sharp and direct division of votes between Congress and JD-S candidates. There are 36 seats where the winner BJP polled fewer votes than Congress and JD-S together did. For example, on Aland Assembly seat, BJP got 76815 votes and won the seat while Congress polled 76118 votes and JD-S 2213 votes. Similarly, in Bangalore South seat, BJP polled 152469 votes and won the seat while Congress remained at No. 2 with 122052 votes and JD-S with 36164 votes finished at No. 3. Full list of such seats is given below.

In the elections, though BJP won 104 seats, its vote share (36.2%) was about 2% below than that of Congress (38%). The vote share of JD-S was 18.3%.