Karnataka: Congress emerges poor bargainer in seat sharing

BENGALURU: The decision of the Congress to cede four Lok Sabha seats to the JD(S) — which are outside the regional party’s stronghold of old-Mysuru region — has triggered debate in political circles with most contending that the Congress bent backwards to please its junior partner in its goal to defeat the BJP in Karnataka.

Many Congress leaders feel the 20:8 formula which the parties agreed to, will only give the JD(S) solace, but it won’t help realise the primary goal of defeating BJP. They say barring Vijayapura, the chances of the JD(S) winning the Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada and Udupi-Chikkamagaluru seats are bleak. This is because the JD(S) not only lacks leaders of calibre, but also organisational strength. They say the party will have to piggyback on Congress from the word go.


The performance of the JD(S) in the 2018 assembly and 2014 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls in these seats suggests the argument does hold water. In the assembly elections, the JD(S) in Uttara Kannada polled a total 1.3 lakh votes in all the eight assembly segments as against the 4 lakh votes the Congress recorded. Around 4.9 lakh voters had favoured the BJP.

In Udupi-Chikkamagaluru, the party’s vote share in all eight assembly segments put together was a mere 90,000, whereas the Congress polled 4,06,580 votes. Incidentally, the JD(S) has not won a single assembly segment in these two seats. In Vijayapura and Shivamogga, the party has done marginally better by getting over 2.5 lakh votes in each. But it still lagged behind the Congress with over two lakh votes in both the seats.

In Lok Sabha polls, the JD(S) fared dismally in these seats. In 2014, the party mustered a mere 1.4% of the votes polled and 5.9% in Vijayapura. In Shivamogga it got 21% votes thanks to Geetha Shivarajkumar, daughter of late former CM S Bangarappa.

“Looking at these results, common sense suggests these seats should have gone to the Congress as it would have ensured a tough fight,” said a Congress leader from Kittur which falls under Uttara Kannada seat. He also dismissed the argument that since both the parties are fighting election as allies, there will be a natural transfer of votes from Congress to JD(S).

Good riddance

However, a section of Congress leaders feel the decision to leave Uttara Kannada and Udupi-Chikkamagaluru to the JD(S) is a well thought-out move. “The Congress has not won these two seats for a long time now,” said a leader. “Moreover, the party had no formidable candidates to take on BJP in these seats.”