Now that the BJP is in a tight situation after it fell just short of crossing the 112-seat majority mark, it has no other option than pulling in some of the JD (S) and Congress MLAs, so that the mandate given by the Kannadigas won’t be disrespected.
The result of one seat was withheld due to protests done by Congress workers but late night the Election Commission announced that BJP has won that constituency. This moved the seat tally of BJP to 104 seats.
But did you know that BJP would have had easily secured 134 seats and inched closer towards “Congress-Mukt Bharat”? At present, the central BJP leaders are running towards Karnataka, but if they had showed some smartness on the day of the election, this tensed situation wouldn’t have had occurred.
How and why BJP would have easily won 30 more seats yesterday?
- BJP failed in the last moment in the constituencies where there was neck-to-neck competition. For example in Badami, Mr Siddaramaiah won by a narrow margin of just 1696 votes. In Badami, voters who selected NOTA were 2007. This was more than the victory margin of Siddaramaiah.
- There is also a claim that the voters who embrace NOTA are the ones who usually vote for BJP. They opt NOTA because they don’t want to vote to neither Congress nor JD (S).
- There were even allegations that huge cash was distributed in constituencies where Congress was trailing. But BJP failed to stop this foul play in the elections, except in the RR Nagar constituency, where the poll got postponed.
BJP had a clear chance of winning in 134 constituencies where the competition was neck-to-neck and at certain constituencies, BJP was even leading. But due to various reasons like NOTA, split within the party leaders and even due to the dirty games of the rivals, BJP failed to win in these 30 constituencies. 200, 400, 500, 1000+ were the margin of defeat of the BJP candidates in certain constituencies.
Below is a list of constituencies where BJP lost by a very narrow margin!
Constituency: Maski
BJP lost by a margin of 213 votes
Constituency: Hirekerur
BJP lost by a margin of 555 votes
Constituency: Kundgol
BJP lost by a margin of 634 votes
Constituency: Athani
BJP lost by a margin of 2331 votes
Constituency: Badami
BJP lost by a margin of 1696 votes
Constituency: Bellary
BJP lost by a margin of 2679 votes
Constituency: Byatarayanapura
BJP lost by a margin of 5671 votes
Constituency: Chamarajanagar
BJP lost by a margin of 4913 votes
Constituency: Chittapur
BJP lost by a margin of 4393 votes
Constituency: Gadag
BJP lost by a margin of 1868 votes
Constituency: Gulbarga Uttar
BJP lost by a margin of 5940 votes
Constituency: Hagarabommanahalli
BJP lost by a margin of 7323 votes
Constituency: Haliyal
BJP lost by a margin of 5140 votes
Constituency: Hanur
BJP lost by a margin of 3513 votes
Constituency: Harihar
BJP lost by a margin of 7260 votes
Constituency: Hosakote
BJP lost by a margin of 7597 votes
Constituency: Jamkhandi
BJP lost by a margin of 2795 votes
Constituency: Kampli
BJP lost by a margin of 5555 votes
Constituency: Khanapur
BJP lost by a margin of 5133 votes
Constituency: Sakleshpur
BJP lost by a margin of 4942 votes
Constituency: Nagthan
BJP lost by a margin of 5601 votes
Constituency: Lingsugur
BJP lost by a margin of 4946 votes
Constituency: Kunigal
BJP lost by a margin of 5600 votes
Constituency: Sindgi
BJP lost by a margin of 9305 votes
Constituency: Sringeri
BJP lost by a margin of 1989 votes
Constituency: Tumkur Rural
BJP lost by a margin of 5640 votes
Constituency: Vijay Nagar
BJP lost by a margin of 2775 votes
Constituency: Yellapur
BJP lost by a margin of 1483 votes
Constituency: Yemkanmardi
BJP lost by a margin of 2850 votes
Now, will the BJP form a government?
- The sources have said that BJP is planning to execute the “Operation Kamala” or “Operation Lotus” by pulling in some of the MLAs from Congress and JD (S).
- Party President Amit Shah will also land in the state and it is said that he will succeed in forming a government. Even PM Modi had said “I thank my sisters and brothers of Karnataka for steadfastly supporting the BJP’s development agenda and making BJP the single largest party in the state. I salute the stupendous work of BJP Karnataka Karyakartas who toiled round the clock and worked for the party”
- It was also said that a bunch of JD (S) and Congress MLAs have revolted against the decision of a coalition government. It won’t be a surprise if they lend their support to BJP.
- Even the Lingayat leaders from Congress had threatened to quit the party if there occurs a coalition.
BJP can form a government with just 106 seats, do you know how?
- At present, 1 individual MLA and 1 MLA from KPJP have lent their support to the BJP. So the seat tally of BJP has gone up to 106 and the BJP can form the government with these MLAs.
- For that, BJP needs to crack a deal with the MLAs from JD (S) and Congress and convince them to resign from their MLA seat. That’s when the strength of the house will collapse and then BJP can easily form a government.
- Even this situation cannot be denied as the rival MLAs are in talks with the BJP at present.
Even though the Congress had double the seats than the JD (S), it is ready to accept HD Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister just because of the fear that it doesn’t want to get wiped out from the state.
However, BJP lost a golden chance to cross the 130+ mark if it was careful while dealing in the constituencies where there was a neck-to-neck fight.
Hansika Raj