BJP gets over 51 per cent vote share in Karnataka, highest ever since 1984

Bengaluru, May 24: The BJP in Karnataka registered its biggest-ever victory in the state winning 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats. The party managed to garner 51.2 per cent of the votes, outdoing its 2014 performance when it received 43.37 per cent of the votes.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has increased its tally in Karnataka over 2014 despite the alliance between the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular)

BJP's vote share of 51.38 per cent is its highest ever, and the highest for any non-Congress party in the history of the State, and the highest since 1984. Apart from Bengaluru Rural and Hassan in south Karnataka, the alliance has drawn a blank even in its bastions of Old Mysore region and Hyderabad-Karnataka.

Most of the candidates elected from the BJP were MPs in the previous Lok Sabha and were seeking re-election.

The interesting part of this election is that BJP made inroads into the South Karnataka belt, also known as the old Mysuru region, very distinctively this time.

Conceding defeat and calling the LS election results "unexpected", Kumaraswamy said leaders of his party JD(S) and Congress would deliberate on the reasons behind the defeat.

Of the 28 constituencies that went to the polls, BJP had won in 17, Congress in 9 and JD(S) in two seats during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. However, during the by-poll in November last year, BJP had lost the Bellary seat to Congress.

While BJP had gained a vote share of 43.37 per cent in the 2014 polls, Congress and JD(S) had secured 41.15 per cent and 11.07 per cent respectively.

In 2014, while BJP had swept the coastal region, did well in the Mumbai Karnataka, central districts and Bangalore and also to an extent in Hyderabad Karnataka, most of the Congress victories came from its stronghold of southern Karnataka or old Mysuru region.

JD(S) had won both its bastions of Hassan and Mandya.

During the 2018 Karnataka state elections, having won 104 seats, BJP failed to secure majority (113 seats). The Karnataka Legislative Assembly has a total of 224 seats. As a result, JD(S) with 38 seats and Congress with 77 seats came together to form the government. According to this deal, HD Kumaraswamy become the Chief Minister.

Until then, Congress and JD(S) had been arch-rivals. The Congress-JD(S) coalition seems to have not worked given the decades-long rivalry. In fact, the alliance seems to be working against them in the Lok Sabha election.