Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: Congress’s number of seats in Karnataka increases to 9
BJP left the ground Congress The ruling party in Karnataka increased its Lok Sabha tally to nine on Tuesday after results of elections for 28 seats in the state were declared.
The BJP, which tried to ride on the Modi factor, won 17 seats – down from 25 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections – while its NDA ally JD(S) won two constituencies, according to Election Commission officials.
After winning a landslide victory in the Assembly elections held in May last year, which saw a triangular contest between the Congress, BJP and JD(S), the ruling party was determined to put up a strong performance but it fell short of expectations in the polls, in which the party was expected to win at least 15 seats.
The Congress had relied heavily on the five guarantee schemes it launched in the state, hoping to reap electoral benefits. In the 2019 general elections, the grand old party had won just one seat out of the total 28 seats in the state.
Karnataka is the most important state for BJP in South India, as BJP has been in power here in the past.
After the defeat in the Assembly elections last year, the BJP had tried to improve its prospects in the Lok Sabha elections by capitalising on the Modi factor and had set an ambitious target of repeating its 2019 Lok Sabha performance, when it had swept the polls.
Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, who is accused of sexually abusing and videotaping several women, was defeated by Congress’ Shreyas M Patel. He has already been suspended by the JD(S).
Radhakrishna Doddamani, son-in-law of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, defeated BJP’s Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga. The BJP won all three seats falling under the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Bengaluru Rural.
Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s brother and MP DK Suresh was defeated by eminent cardiologist and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s son-in-law Dr CN Manjunath from Bengaluru Rural. Interestingly, this was the only seat won by the Congress in 2019.
Suresh’s defeat is being considered a big setback for Shivakumar, who was harbouring ambitions of becoming the chief minister.
Three former chief ministers – HD Kumaraswamy of the JD(S), and Basavaraj Bommai and Jagadish Shettar (both BJP) – won their Lok Sabha constituencies of Mandya, Haveri and Belgaum respectively.
According to the Election Commission, Union Minister Prahlad Joshi and BJP’s Shobha Karandlaje won in Dharwad and Bengaluru North Lok Sabha constituencies respectively, while another Union minister Bhagwant Khuba was defeated by Sagar Khandre, son of Karnataka minister Eshwar Khandre, in Bidar.
The winners also include BJP’s Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, descendant of the former Mysore royal family from Mysore, BY Raghavendra, son of senior party leader BS Yediyurappa from Shimoga and BJP youth wing chief Tejasvi Surya from Bengaluru South.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah admitted that the Congress’ performance was not as expected as he had expected to win 15 to 20 seats but his assessment went wrong.
He said, “However, in 2019 we had won only one seat, but this time we got nine seats. Our vote share in Karnataka this time is 45.34 percent, BJP’s vote share is 46.04 percent, that is, the difference is less than one percent.”
Apart from this, Siddaramaiah said that in 2019, the vote share of BJP was 51.38 percent and the vote share of Congress was 31.88 percent.
In the 2019 general elections, the saffron party won 25 seats and also ensured the victory of an independent candidate it supported. Many BJP leaders had repeatedly claimed that the party would win all 28 seats this time.
For the JD(S) this is Lok Sabha Elections The 2023 assembly elections in Karnataka were seen as crucial after the party recorded its worst performance in two decades, winning only 19 seats.
Hence, in what is largely being seen as a “forced alliance”, the JD(S) in the hope of improving its prospects had entered into an alliance with the BJP against the backdrop of the ruling Congress’ alleged “attack” and attempts to weaken the party by luring away its leaders and MLAs.
According to leaders of both the parties, coordination between their workers is working in their favour as there has been a transfer of votes between them in the old Mysore region.
This election was a turnaround for the JD(S) led by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda as compared to 2019, when the party was running a coalition government with the Congress and contested the elections together. Then it had won in one constituency – Hassan.
Congress’s defeat in Mysore is being seen as a big setback for Siddaramaiah, as it is his home district and he had spent a lot of time and energy in strategizing and campaigning there.
Among the losers were expelled BJP leader K S Eshwarappa and Geetha Shivarajkumar, wife of film star Shivarajkumar, the Congress candidate from Shimoga who contested against Yeddyurappa’s son Raghavendra.
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