Congress unlikely to win 20 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka

Bengaluru, Feb 19: Karnataka Congress, which is buoyed by victory BJP bastion Bellary, has set for itself a daunting task to win 20 Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming 2019 general elections.

In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, with the Modi wave in full force, the BJP got 17 seats, two seats less than 2009. BJP's vote share was 43 per cent. Congress got three seats more than 2009; they got nine seats this time and a voting percentage of 40.80 per cent. Janata Dal (Secular) won two seats and 11 per cent vote share. Currently, BJP has 15 (Bangalore South is vacant after the demise of Ananth Kumar and loss in Bellary bypoll) Congress has 10 and JDS-2 Member of Parliament.

To add 10 more seats into it's kitty in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party has to make way into BJP bastions. However, according to source, "The party may boast in public to win big time in this election, but the reality is different. The party has no strong candidates in sight for 6-7 parliamentary constituencies to take on the saffron party. Tumkur, Bangalore North, Bangalore South, Mangalore, Bagalkote to name a few. On the contrary, Bangalore Central has a lot of competition from Congress candidates.

Also, Congress has to deal with the pressure from the alliance partner Janata Dal (Secular) demanding more number of seats. The JDS wants to contest on 10-12 seats which include seats won by the Congress party in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Therefore, the Congress delegation from the state has requested former Congress President Sonia Gandhi not to budge to JDS demand.

Senior political analyst and psephologist Mahadev Prakash threw light on current state of the alliance in the state. Mahadev Prakash says, "Congress is targeting 20 seats, but they should try retain its present tally (9 seats) in upcoming elections. The Pulwama attack will play a vital role in elections. Apart from the corruption allegations against the saffron party will not sway voters."

"As election approaches trend will be set in favour of BJP because Congress-JDS is not a united group, " according to his reading into changing political development.

He further said "Especially, in North Karnataka Congress-JDS alliance will not be game-changer for both the parties in North Karnataka. Siddaramaiah, MLA from Badami, is making futile effort to win Bagalkote and Bijapur districts. Also, there is disappointment with the alliance because they did not respect people's mandate in the 2018 assembly elections."

Talking about election promises of the Congress-JDS government, he said, "So far, farm loan has reached only 60,000 farmers, in fact, there are 12 lakh farmers in the state. There is resentment in North Karnataka against the government's policies towards the region."

"Even BJP may go upto 20 in Karnataka, Mahadev Prakash opines.