Congress veterans bite the dust. JD(S) supremo HD Devegowda loses from Tumkur. With Congress and JD(S) reduced to one seat each in Karnataka, the incumbent coalition government is set to fall after facing opposition from their own MLAs in continuing the opportunistic alliance.
– R Guruprasad
(For representaion purpose only)
After the disastrous performance in the Loksabha elections and Assembly bye-polls, the Congress -JD(S) coalition Government in Karnataka is on shaky grounds. It may fall on its own due to dissidence of MLAs and dissatisfaction of party workers from both sides over an unholy alliance.
By winning Chincholi Assembly seat in the by-election, BJP increased its strength in the Assembly. Congress managed to retain Kundagol Assembly seat with a thin margin. With the support of the two independent candidates, BJP’s strength in the Assembly has gone up to 107. The Congress – JD(S) alliance strength is 117. The magic number to form the Government is 113 in the 224 Assembly seat.
The move to make Parameshwara as Chief Minister and H D Revanna, brother of sitting Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy as Deputy chief Minister is also doing rounds among political corridors to save the coalition Government.
JD(S) family is terribly shaken after losing Tumkur and Mandya Lok Sabha seats. JD(S) MLA’s are ready to break away and eager to join hands with BJP to form the Government. This development is causing political turmoil and keeping both Congress and JD(S) leaders in tension. However, BJP is not in a hurry to form the Government. BJP party president B.S.Yeddyurappa who was instrumental in winning maximum seats for BJP said he will wait for the developments to take its own terms and wait for a few days observing the situation.
B.S.Yeddyurappa was maintained throughout the campaign that BJP will get 21 to 22 seats but many including his own party leaders never believed it. The unexpected results brought cheers in the BJP camp and there is a demand to form the government from BJP MLAs with a new Josh.
The coalition partners can boast of the following dharma in the Lok Sabha election results; they got an equal number of seats, One each! while it was a clean sweep for the BJP by winning 25 out of 27 seats that it contested. Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh who got support from BJP has won the prestigious Mandya Loksabha seat by defeating Nikhil Kumaraswamy the actor-son of sitting Chief Minister. She won against the combined strength of two parties and became the first independent candidate in the history of Karnataka to enter Parliament.
All the sitting BJP MPs in the previous term won this time too and all the Congress MP’s except one has lost the elections. BJP has secured 51.38% votes and the coalition partners combined managed to get only 41%.
Senior Congress leader Mallikarjuna Kharge, who had won 11 elections consecutively for the last 45 years lost to BJP candidate Dr. Umesh Jadav. By winning this seat BJP has gained a strong foothold in Hyderabad -Karnataka region.
Another congress Chieftain who can never lose, KH Muniyappa who has won Lok Sabha seats seven times consecutively lost by a mammoth margin to BJP’s S. Muniswamy in Kolar constituency. Senior Congress leader and Former Chief Minister Veerappa Moily lost to BJP’s Bachche Gowda in Chickballapura constituency. Another Congress leader V.S Ugrappa failed to retain the seat and lost it to BJP’s Y. Devendrappa in Bellary constituency. Interestingly Ugrappa had won this seat in the by-election recently.
Congress candidate Dhruvanarayan from Chamarajnagar constituency kept his leading till 10 rounds of counting and his followers started celebrating that he has won. But finally, luck favoured BJP’s V. Srinivas Prasad and he won by 1817 votes.
BJP Leader Anant Kumar Hegde created a record in the state by winning with the highest margin of 4,79,649 votes by defeating JDS candidate Anand Asnotikar from Uttara Kannada Loksabha Constituency.
