MLC POLL RESULTS SHOW KARNATAKA ENTERING BI-POLAR POLITICS PHASE

The Legislative Council polls in Karnataka whose results were declared on Tuesday witnessed the regional party Janata Dal (Secular) getting decimated as both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC) held their forts in the closely contested elections. Of the 25 seats that went to polls, the saffron party won 12, the Congress got 11, while the JDS and others got one seat each. The BJP, by winning 12 seats, has attained a slight advantage in the upper house as now they have 37 seats in the 75-member Karnataka Legislative Council. The grand old party gave a tough challenge to the ruling dispensation as it won 11 seats, reminding the BJP that it cannot be ruled out in any election in the state. The voting for the biennial election to Karnataka Legislative Council’s 25 seats, namely two seats each from the Local Authorities Constituencies of Bijapur, Belgaum, Dharwad, Dakshina Kannada and Mysuru; and one each from Bidar, Gulbarga, Uttara Kannada, Raichur, Bellary, Chitradurga, Shivamogga, Chikmagalur, Hassan, Tumakuru, Mandya, Bangalore, Bangalore Rural, Kolar and Kodagu, was held on 10 December and around above 99% voter turnout was recorded during the polls.

For the JD(S), the results were really troubling as it lost the Mandya seat which had been considered its stronghold since 1992. After the results, the JD (S) leaders blamed a tactical understanding between the BJP and Congress for the loss in these polls. JD (S) leader and former Karnataka CM, H.D. Kumaraswamy was quoted as saying, “Everyone knows that Congress and BJP have an internal understanding to finish the JDS party. They’ve somewhat succeeded in coordinating with each other in all of the 6 constituencies we had contested in. Our focus is on the 2023 general elections (in Karnataka). We’re working on developing the strength for that. We’re not bothered with the result of the Karnataka Legislative Council elections.”

Despite winning 12 seats, the election results had put the BJP in dock as it lost Belgaum seat where the Congress candidate Channaraj Hattiholi won by a fairly good margin and an independent candidate played spoilsports for the BJP as he not only decimating the saffron party’s winning chances but also reduced it to the third spot. The election was necessitated as tenures of the MLCs are set to end on January 5. Of the 25 outgoing MLCs, 14 were from Congress, seven from BJP and four from JD(S). There are 75 seats in the Karnataka Legislative council and the ruling BJP was dependent on 12 members of the JD (S) to get any legislation cleared through the council. The most important message from the polls was that the state is increasingly entering into a phase of bi-polar politics with the BJP and the Congress emerging as the two poles.