Karnataka results: BJP bags one seat less in Bengaluru than 2013

There was not much of a difference in the way Bengaluru voted in Karnataka Assembly elections 2018. Bengaluru city has 28 assembly seats out of which voting was held in 26 seats. If we take both Bengaluru urban and rural regions, then there are 36 seats out of which the Congress is leading in 16 seats while the BJP and JD (S) are leading in 11 and 7 seats, respectively.

In 2013 elections, Congress had won 16 seats in Bengaluru, while the BJP had won 12 seats. JD (S) had then won 7 seats and an independent bagged one seat.

In 2013 Karnataka elections, out of the 28 seats in Bengaluru city, BJP won 12 while the Congress won 13. It must be recalled that the BJP did poorly in 2013 elections after BS Yeddyurappa severed ties with the party and contested elections by forming a new party - KJP. Experts opined that KJP ate into BJP's traditional vote bank, the Lingayats.

This time in the Bangalore region, polling was held only in 26 constituencies. The poll at Rajarajeshwari Nagar was postponed thanks to a voter ID scam. In Jayanagar, the elections were countermanded due to the death of BJP MLA, B N Vijaykumar.

Most exit polls predicted a hung assembly in Karnataka and many of them forecasted that the Congress would emerge as the single largest party. It has been over five hours since the counting began, and it looks like the BJP has proved all such polls wrong. The BJP is leading in 104 seats and the Congress is lagging far behind with leads in 78 seats, as per the latest inputs.

Modi called Siddaramaiah names, launched scathing attack on Congress, praised Deve Gowda but the very next day asked people to not 'waste' their vote on JD (S). Whatever he did, Modi remained in headlines and kept sending shivers down the Congress' spine. Congress claimed there was no 'Modi wave', but now on the hindsight, it seems the wave is very much there and will remain relevant even during 2019 Lok Sabha elections.