A day after the Karnataka Assembly election results threw up a fractured mandate, some members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were reported to be claiming that they were in touch with several of elected members of legislative Assembly (MLAs) from the Congress and the JD(S), and that the BJP would definitely form the next government in the state.
The BJP, apparently, is in talks with at least seven of the 10 Lingayat legislators of the Congress who are unhappy with the party for dividing the Lingayat community votes and are unwilling to accept Kumaraswamy, a Vokkaliga, as their chief minister. Sources in the BJP told Business Standard that the party was also in touch with about half a dozen JD(S) MLAs who might be willing to abstain from voting at the time of the floor test.
Meanwhile, the outgoing Karnataka chief minister, Siddaramaiah, rejected the reports of dissension among Congress MLAs and called them "just baseless rumours”.Counter-claims of the Congress being in talks with some BJP MLAs were also doing the rounds. Sources in the Congress claimed that some BJP legislators had contacted the Congress high-command, saying they would not vote against the Congress-JD(S) coalition if it gets a chance to prove its majority on the floor of the House.
Congress leader D K Shivakumar, while talking to news agency ANI, said that the party had a plan and that they were facing a lot of pressure with the BJP trying to poach Congress MLAs.
In the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 results, the BJP emerged as the single largest party, with 104 seats, but it fell short of the halfway mark of 112 in the 224-seat state Assembly by 9 seats. Congress ended up as the second-biggest with 78 seats, and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) stood third with 38 seats. The Congress and the JD(S) decided to come together to form a coalition government.
At present, the ball is in the court of Governor Vajubhai Vala, who will decide which side would be invited to form the next government. According to an NDTV report, both sides would meet the governor again on Wednesday to make their case stronger.
Karnataka Assembly election 2018 saw a record 72.36 per cent of the 50.7 million (5.07 crore) voters exercising their right to franchise. Of them, 27,908 electors in defence services voted through postal ballots. The Election Commission had deployed 16,662 personnel for counting of votes amid tight security.
Four of the seven polling agencies had predicted in their exit polls that the BJP would emerge as the single-largest party. While most exit polls predicted a hung Assembly with the BJP ahead, two had said the BJP would either come very close to or cross the halfway mark of 112 seats. The India Today-Axis exit poll had said the Congress might bag a majority. All exit polls had given the H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) nearly two dozen seats or more. The JD(S), however, beat that projection by bagging 37 seats.
Here are the top 10 developments around the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 results and the race between the BJP and the Congress-JD(S) combine to form the next state government:
1. The ball is now in the Governor's court: The BJP, which emerged as the single largest party in the state, fell nine seats shy of the 112-seat majority mark in the 224-seat Assembly. While the BJP won 104 seats, the the Congress-JD(S) combine bagged 115 seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party and the Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party won a eat each, while an independent candidate won one. While both the BJP and the Congress-JD(S) combine have staked claim to form the next state government, it remains to be seen who will get an invitation to do so from Governor Vajubhai Vala.
Both sides are set to hold another round of meeting with the Governor today.
Meanwhile, outgoing Karnataka chief minister, Siddaramaiah, has called for a meeting of the newly elected MLAs of the Congress and JD(S) today, ANI reported.
2. BJP reaches out to JD(S): The BJP on Wednesday reached out to the JD(S) and offered H D Kumaraswamy the CM's post, in an attempt to form the next government in the state, sources told ETnow. BJP is just 9 seats short of the half-way mark, while the JD(S) has 37 seats in the 224-member Assembly. A day before, the Congress had offered support to JD(S) and chief ministership to Kumaraswamy. The JD(S) had accepted the offer. While it remains to be seen which of the BJP and Congress will come to power, it looks almost certain that the JD(S) would be part of the ruling coalition. Also, it looks imminent that Kumaraswamy would be the next CM -- either with the Congress support or with the BJP's.
3. EC cleared Hubli Dharwad poll results after mismatch in votes: The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday cleared the poll result of Karnataka's Hubli Dharwad Assembly constituency which was held up because of a mismatch of actual votes cast and votes reflected on Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Jagadish Shettar has emerged as the winner from the constituency.
"If there is difference between EVM count and paper slip count, paper slip count prevails. Winning margin in Hubli Dharwad Constituency is more than 20,000 and VVPAT slips counted in polling station no 135 A is only 459. Hence Returning Officer declared Jagadish Shettar as the winner," read an official statement as reported by ANI.
Shettar, who was Karnataka Chief Minister from 2012-13, is now the clear winner over Congress candidate Mahesh Nalwad.
The benchmark Sensex swinged nearly 500 points from the day's high after a fractured mandate leaving BJP as the single largest party and the Congress and JD(S) coming together to form a coalition.
The index had surged to a three-month high of 35,994 as early trends showed the BJP was going for a clear majority in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly. The Sensex closed at 35,544, down 13 points from the previous day's close, and 450 points off the day's high. The Nifty ended at 10,802, after climbing to 10,929. Both the indices were about one per cent short of the all-time highs they had touched in late January.
Apart from the political uncertainty that popped up after the Karnataka poll results, worsening domestic macro conditions also affected the investor sentiment. The rupee weakened to Rs 68 against the dollar for the first time in 16 months.
Considered as the stepping stone for the 2019 general elections, the street was keenly observing the Karnataka assembly election results.
The high vote share for the Congress, the main opposition party, in the Karnataka polls poses a challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to retain power in 2019, concluded market players.
5. Congress facing a Deja vu? In a bid to keep its flock together the Congress was mulling the possibility of taking its legislators to a resort in the neighbouring state of Kerala, ruled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The Congress leaders present at the meeting included outgoing chief minister Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar and others.
Last year, in a similar incident, the Congress had put up its legislators from Gujarat in a resort owned by Shivakumar in Bengaluru, when it feared that the BJP might influence them to abstain from voting in a Rajya Sabha election.
Earlier in the day, the JD(S) and Congress leaders had together gone to Governor Vajubhai Vala to stake claim to form the government. BJP leaders, led by BS Yeddyurappa, had also asked the Governor to give them time until Thursday to prove majority.
The JD(S) has won 37-seats and its ally the Bahujan Samaj Party has been victorious in one seat.
The Congress has won 78 seats, and an Independent candidate that it had backed has also won. Together, the post-poll alliance is set to have 117-seats to the BJP's 104 in the 224-seat Assembly. Two seats where polls were postponed will vote on May 28.
The chief ministerial candidate of the Bhartiya Janta Party and former CM of the state, BS Yeddyurappa said that he was going to be elected as the leader of the party. He added that all the MLAs from the BJP will meet Governor to request him to allow the party to form a government in the state.
"Tomorrow at 10:30 am in BJP legislative party meeting, I am going to be elected as party leader. After that, all MLAs are going to meet the Governor to request him to allow BJP to form govt. Now the ball is in the court of the Governor. We will do as he decides," he said on Tuesday.
The move is seen as an attempt by the beleaguered party to save yet another state from slipping out of its kitty. The Congress currently rules Punjab, Mizoram and Puducherry.
Tuesday's step will also help provide a major boost to the "sagging morale" of the Congress ahead of state assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where the party sees an opportunity to upstage the BJP, and 2019 general elections.
Unlike in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya, where the Congress failed to form its government despite securing the highest seats, it forged a quick post-poll alliance with the JD-S in Karnataka and staked claim to government formation.
Sensing a clear opportunity, the Congress leadership took a quick call to let go of the post of chief minister, which it offered to JD-S that lapped it up immediately.
Sources said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi discussed the issue with Sonia Gandhi and decided to play out the card of offering chief ministership to HD Kumaraswamy, the son of JD-S supremo and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda.
8 AAP draws a blank in Karnataka polls: AAP candidates forfeited deposit in all 29 seats the party contested in Karnataka, giving yet another jolt to its attempts to spread its wings outside Delhi and Punjab.
Prithvi Reddy, AAP's Karnataka convenor, who took on Congress heavyweight K J George from the Sarvagnanagar Assembly constituency, could barely manage 1,861 votes, coming a distant fourth.
"We were washed out but I cannot understand why. We got a lot of support but that could not be converted into votes," said Reddy, who had resorted to a door-to-door campaign, usually undertaken by the party citing lack of resources.
Of the 29 seats, the party had contested 18 in Bengaluru and 11 in the other parts of the state.
President Amit Shah expressed confidence that BJP would surely come to power in Karnataka. He said, "This is the 15th election. BJP has already won the last 14 elections. This is the 15th consecutive election where BJP is going to win."
He further added, "In 2019 we will not only form the govt under the leadership of Modi Ji but also form a New India in 2022."
Slamming Congress, Amit Shah said, "I don't know by which analysis is Congress happy. They have lost the elections. Their sitting chief minister could hardly retain the safe seat and lost badly from his traditional seat, if this is not a loss I don't know what is," Shah said, according to Firstpost.
Modi started off his speech by condoling the loss of lives in Varanasi bridge collapse. Further, he congratulated BJP workers' victory in Karnataka.
He further attacked the Congress party and said it is trying to come to power in the state by forming an alliance with the Janata Dal (Secular), despite facing rejection.
The Prime Minister further said that by rejecting the mandate of the people, the party is hurting India's Constitution for its political interests.
"No one could have imagined that in this election, Congress would do an act to hurt India's Constitution only for its political interests," he said.
The Prime Minister also said that the Karnataka elections are proof that the BJP is not a party for only Hindi speaking states.
"They said the BJP is a party of Hindi speaking states. Are Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, the northeastern states of Hindi speaking states? No, BJP represents India and our proud diversity," Prime Minister Modi said.
At least 10 ministers fell by the wayside as they lost their seats in an anti-incumbency wave that swept the Siddaramaiah government out of power in the assembly polls.
Siddaramaiah himself lost by a huge margin of 36,042 votes in his traditional constituency of Chamundeshwari in Mysuru to JDS' G T Deve Gowda.
He, however, managed to scrape through in Badami in north Karnataka, where he won by a slender margin of 1,696 votes after a see-saw battle against BJP's B Sriramulu, a close associate of the mining baron Reddy brothers.
Siddaramaiah's close aide H C Mahadevappa (55,451 votes) lost to JDS M Ashwin Kumar (83,929 votes) in T Narsipura.
Ramanath Rai (81,831 votes) was defeated by BJP's U Rajesh Naik (97,802 votes) in Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada district.
In Holalkere, H Anjaneya (69,036 votes) lost to BJP's M Chandrappa (1,07,976 votes).
Dr Sharan Prakash Rudrappa Patil (73,468 votes) lost to BJP's Rajkumar Patil (80,668 votes) in Sedam.
SS Mallikarjun (72,469 votes) was defeated by BJP's S A Ravindranath (76,540 votes) in Davanagere.
Octogenarian and the oldest candidate to contest, Kagodu Thimappa (70,436 votes) lost to BJP's H Halappa Harathalu (78,475 votes) in Sagara.
Basavaraj Rayareddi (65,754 votes) lost to BJP's Char Halappa Basappa (79,072 votes) in Yelburga while Rudrappa Lamani (75,261 votes) conceded his seat to BJP's Neharu Olekar (86,565 votes) in Haveri.
Pramod Mdhwaraj (72,902 votes) was defeated by BJP's Raghupathi Bhat (84,946 votes) in Udupi.