Losing close duels cost saffron party a clear majority
THERE ARE A CLUTCH OF SEATS WHERE THE SAFFRON PARTY LOST BY DIFFERENCES RANGING FROM 213 VOTES TO 540 VOTES
BENGALURU: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell agonisingly short of a majority in Karnataka, and the party lost a number of narrow contests across the state.
A data analysis indicates that in 26 of the 222 constituencies that went to polls, the saffron party lost by margins as low as 0.2% of the votes polled to a maximum of 5% of the votes polled. For instance, in Maski, the BJP candidate Basvangouda Turvihal polled 60,174 votes as opposed to his winning Congress opponent Pratapgouda Patil who got 60,387 votes. The margin between victory and defeat is a mere 213 votes. In an election where more than 1,30,000 votes were polled, the victory margin was less than 0.2%.
Maski is not an exception. Take Kundgol, where the Congress party’s Chanbasappa Satyappa Shivalli polled 64,871 votes as against the BJP’S Chikkanagoudra Ishwaragoud who polled 64,237 votes, again a margin of a mere 634 votes.
Compared to the total votes polled in the constituency, the margin of victory is again less than 0.5%.
Even in Gulbarga Uttar, where the BJP’S Chandrakant Patil lost by 5,940 votes to his Congress opponent Kaneez Fatima, and the margin was less than 5% of the total votes polled. Maski and Gulbarga Uttar represent the opposite ends of spectrum in terms of the margins by which the BJP lost. There are a clutch of other seats where the saffron party lost by differences ranging from 213 votes to 540 votes including seats such as Hirekerur (555), Yellapur (1,483), Gadag (1,868), Sringeri (1,989), Athani (2331) and Hanur (3513).
Senior political analyst Mahadev Prakash said that while the saffron party has a good on-ground organisation, in a close election every vote counted.
“However there are also instances of where the BJP also has won close races, like in Sagara where Hartal Halappa has won by mere 12 votes agains Kagodu Thimappa,” he said. Prakash said that the close races indicated that the party could have done better to get their core voters out more on polling day.