NEW DELHI: It may or may not turn out to be a big victory for BJP in Karnataka, depending on whether the party forms government, even after B S
Yeddyurappa staked claim for finishing as the single largest party, to governor Vajubhai Vala, but the close-to-the-majority mark verdict (short by 7 in a 222 seat contest) on Tuesday, is a significant boost to the party’s morale for beating Congress in a closely fought battle.
BJP emerged a significant winner as the party got the better of a tough challenge posed by incumbent chief minister Siddaramaiah's caste and welfare policies, while falling tantalisingly short of a majority in the only southern state where the party has considerable hold on the ground and hence generates hopes for 2019 Lok Sabha numbers.
While BJP’s central leadership can be credited to have first realized that its tallest leader in the state B S Yeddyurappa (BSY) had to be named the chief ministerial candidate before any other micro or macro management for the elections are done seems to have worked, eventually it was a half-hearted call. Making an aberration to the rule set by the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah led regime in BJP of discarding all leaders from posts beyond the age of 75 years, in case of BSY it seems to have paid off in the party’s interest as the Lingayat leader may be old but cannot be ruled out, in his state.
While the Modi magic may have helped pick up the tempo among BJP supporters as the Prime Minister campaigned in the last leg of electioneering, the party’s core support base in the state is credited greatly to BSY and KS Eshwarappa who sowed the seeds for BJP growth in the state from an early stage. It is that support base created by BSY that welcomed Modi’s appeal and hence could not be ignored by Shah.
One of the first things that the BJP chief however, took care in the state was to ease out the factional feuds within the party forcing BSY and Eshwarappa to end hostilities and put up a united front. Much of this was also achieved by ensuring that the ticket distribution to BJP contestants being micro-managed by Shah himself rather than allowing the local leaders to make their choices.
BJP’s focused line of attack on the Siddaramaiah-led Congress for benefitting certain castes and communities in terms of its policies, polarizing the voters on issues like Tipu Sultan’s legacy in the state and the projection of the Modi government as a doer at the Centre that could benefit the state too if it has the same party in office seemed to have helped BJP gain ground.
The H D Devegowda-led JDS that has bagged 38 seats have also cut into anti-BJP votes and the BJP campaigns that praised former Prime Minister Devegowda also helped diminish Congress seats to BJP’s advantage.
However, the party’s significant results will only shine as a big victory finally if in the next few days Shah is able to lure some of the winners from the opponent camp to side with it and form a majority government.