Who ditched BJP and who took Cong to power

Bangalore, May 9: Karnataka tourism's tag line says 'one state many worlds'. This seems to hold good politics too with different regions voting differently in the Karnataka Assembly elections 2013.

A clear-cut victory for the Congress has been given by the voter and it sailed through with 121 seats while the BJP and the JD-S stood a joint second with 40 seats each in the 223 seats that went to polls on Sunday.

A region-wise close look reveals the voters' intent.

Congress managed to register a big victory by unseating the BJP in its traditional stronghold in coastal areas and the recently built base in north Karnataka.

Coastal region: Coastal region has been a traditional base of the BJP for the last two decades. But it was a completely whitewash for the BJP in South Canara. The BJP lost all the eight Assembly segments to the Congress. In Udupi, it won single seat out of five.

In 2008, the BJP had won 10 of the 19 seats from South Canara, North Canara and Udupi. In Udupi, the loss could be attributed to the death of VS Acharya, who had considerable clout in the district.

The districts: North Canara, Udupi and South Canara.

Mumbai-Karnataka region: The 50-seat region was very crucial for the BJP and it had won 36 seats in 2008. It also had rich and powerful ministers like Umesh Katti and Murugesh Nirani working in the region but it lost 23 seat in this region.

The Congress, on the other hand, did extremely well by increasing it tally from 12 seats to 31, a gain of 19 seats.

The KJP was expected to make a big difference in Haveri district, which BS Yeddyurappa held close to his heart, but it failed to get seats. But KJP did damage to the BJP by splitting votes.

The districts: Belgaum, Bijapur, Bagalkote, Dharwad, Gadag and Haveri.

Hyderabad-Karnataka region: At stake in this region were 40 seats. It had been accorded special status recently and the Congress seems to have benefitted from this as the orders came for the central government.

The Congress, which won 24 seats in this region, went up from 15 seats in 2008. It is a clear gain of nine seats and chief minister hopefull Mallikarjun Kharge comes from this region.

The districts: Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Koppal, Bellary and Yadgir.

Old Mysore region: The Old Mysore region is blot on its victory with the Congress losing three seats, even though 53 seats were up for grabs. The Congress had 26 seats in 2008, now it is down to 23.

The story of BJP is even bad with it losing five seats.

The reason for bad showing of national parties is due to the fact that the JDS (Janata Dal Secular) not only held on to its stronghold, it increased the tally by six more seats to take overall figure to 21.

The districts: Mysore, Mandya, Kodagu, Kolar, Hassan, Tumkur, Chamrajnagar and Chikballapur.

Bangalore region: The urban cluster of Bangalore and Bangalore Rural present a mixed bag for all the parties.

While it is a sad story for BJP again, which could have been worse, the Congress increased its tally by just two seats, but the real gain was for JDS. The JDS, perceived as anti-urban party added four seats in metropolitan area and, convincingly.

The BJP could hold on to some seats in Bangalore mainly due to its MLAs individual work and rapport with the voters.

The districts: Bangalore, Bangalore Rural and Ramnagara.

Central Karnataka: After big gains in Mumbai Karnataka, the central part of the state went with the Congress in good numbers. The party went from single digit to double figures and bagged 15 seats. The Congress had won six seats in 2008. The BJP, which had won 17 seats from this region was reduced to three and lost 14 seats. Even JDS gained at the expense of BJP and it increased it tally to six from just one seat.

The sorry state of BJP in this region was due to Yeddyrappa, like in Mumbai Karnataka.

The districts: Chitradurga, Davangere, Chikmagalur and Shimoga.

By taking an estimated ten per cent votes, Yeddyurappa's Karnataka Janatha Paksha dealt a body blow to the BJP and helped the Congress to capture the power in Karnataka.

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