Year after debacle, BJP bounces back in Karnataka

The Modi wave also saw the state electorate buck the trend for the first time of not voting for the party that rises to rule the country through the general elections. 

Sensing the BJP’s strong performance early Friday, party workers began gathering at the party head office by 10 am. By mid day they were celebrating the party’s win with fire crackers after viewing the results on three big screens placed outside the party office.

In actual terms, the BJP dropped two seats from the 19 it won in 2009 and one seat from the 18 it won in 2004 but its performance in the face of the odds following the assembly polls meant that the ruling Congress stayed put on nine seats while the regional JD (S) of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda obtained two seats.

In actual terms, the Congress gained three seats over the six it won in 2009 but while going to the polls the Congress was holding nine seats on account of victories in bypolls held between 2009 and 2014.

The Congress lost the Mandya constituency it had won barely a year ago from the JD(S).

“Three facts helped the BJP in Karnataka. One is the Modi wave, the second is the inactivity of the state government and the third is the reorganisation of the party after the the assembly polls,” said state BJP president Prahlad Joshi, who won by 1.13 lakh votes in Dharwad.

The Modi effect in helping the BJP recover from the dents it suffered in the 2013 assembly was most evident in the coastal region — a saffron belt where the BJP lost huge ground in the assembly polls. 

The Modi effect also saw the BJP hold onto the Bangalore region, winning by over one lakh votes in Bangalore Central and over two lakh votes in north and south Bangalore. Five-term BJP MP from the Bangalore South constituency H N Ananth Kumar got another term, defeating Nandan Nilekani of the Congress.

Also standing testimony to the Modi factor was the defeat of the veteran Congress MP from Mysore — the home district of Congress chief minister Siddaramaiah — to a political novice, columnist and Modi biographer, the 37-year-old Prathap Simha.

The BJP and Modi’s much-maligned decision to forge forces once again with scam tainted Lingayat leader, former CM B S Yeddyurappa and scheduled tribe leader B Sreeramulu, who had both left the BJP amid corruption charges last year, paid dividends with the BJP winning the seats where the two leaders and their associates were fielded.