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Karnataka vote, high stakes for BJP, Congress

May 10, 2023
Bharat Times

The counting of votes will take place on Saturday.

Voting began this morning for the high-stakes assembly elections in Karnataka, where the BJP is hoping for another straight term, the Congress banking on the state’s revolving door trend. JDS, which dominates more than 61 seats, can spoil the game.

Here are the top 10 points in this big story:

  1. During the election, the ruling BJP – which is facing multiple allegations of corruption – covered all its bases, including changes to the quota it hopes will draw Vokkaliga and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe votes.

  2. The party, which already had the support of Lingayats, also sidelined the community’s support, giving them a share of the four per cent OBC (Other Backward Classes) votes that were squandered for Muslims.

  3. Several senior Lingayat leaders of the BJP, including former chief minister Jagadish Shettar, have joined the Congress fold after being denied party tickets. This has left the BJP open to the possibility of a split in the Lingayat vote, which could decide the outcome in 90 to 100 seats.

  4. The Congress, which voted itself out of power following the collapse of the coalition government with Janata Dal Secular chief HD Kumaraswamy, has said it will not need another alliance.

  5. Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and party’s state unit chief DK Shivakumar – known for being a woodcutter – have put together a united front. But the mutual enmity over ticket distribution gave a glimpse of the internal rift.

  6. Both the parties have run high profile campaigns. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi held 19 public meetings and six roadshows, Congress’s Rahul Gandhi camped in the state for 12 days.

  7. The campaign intensified with the Congress pledging in its manifesto to ban right-wing group Bajrang Dal. The BJP hit back and later flagged a Congress tweet attributing a remark on “sovereignty” to the Election Commission.

  8. For HD Kumaraswamy’s Janata Dal Secular, this is a crucial election, with party patriarch HD Deve Gowda, who is in his 90s, planning to hang up his election boots. The party, which was hoping to expand its base beyond Hassan and Mandya, is now trying to hold on to its traditional base in the old Mysore region.

  9. A family feud erupted during the election to the prestigious Hassan seat, the backyard of the Gowda family. Bhavani Revanna, wife of Mr Kumaraswamy’s brother HD Revanna, had sought a ticket from the seat. Mr Kumaraswamy had refused and nominated a close aide HP Swarup. The situation calmed down after Shri Deve Gowda campaigned from Hassan.

  10. The counting of votes will take place on Saturday. The majority mark in the 224-member assembly is 113.