Karnataka Election Result 2023: After the resounding victory of the Congress in the Karnataka assembly elections, the phase has begun for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when it has become necessary to churn. This election has given both a lesson and a reason to the party. Now the party may have to consider giving a bigger role to strong regional leaders other than central leaders.
Party sources say that strong leadership in the states helps in taking on rivals, especially when opposition parties also have strong regional leaders. He admitted that this was conspicuously missing in Karnataka. Himachal Pradesh Assembly Election After the defeat at the hands of the Congress in Karnataka, the ruling party at the Center has led to think in the direction of bringing local leaders in a stronger role. This is because both the rivals have to face a direct fight in three more state elections this year before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Defeat of ruling BJP in big state
This is the first time since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that the Congress has defeated the ruling BJP in a major state amid its shrinking support base. This can be said to be an achievement that will infuse energy into its battered cadres and possibly fuel them to take on the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan in the months to come.
The BJP kept Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the center throughout the Karnataka elections and gave priority to national issues. The Congress, on the other hand, focused the election on local issues, created a ’40 per cent commission government’ discourse among the public against Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, and carried forward the election campaign around Siddaramaiah and state president DK Shivakumar.
Social engineering formula failed
With the Karnataka results highlighting the importance of strong local leaders, BJP sources said the party may also have to consider this and discuss giving a bigger role to regional leaders. A party leader pointed to a significant victory for the BJP in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, saying it was possible because it had a chief minister there. Yogi Adityanath Like he was a strong regional leader.
Party sources said the difference in BJP’s vote share in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections is a clear indication that the broad acceptance of Prime Minister Modi does not work equally well in national and state elections. The results are showing that neither the personal charisma of Prime Minister Modi nor his hard work worked in this state, which is called the ‘Gate of the South’. BJP’s ‘double engine’ government slogan, its ‘generational The strategy of ‘change’ also did not show any effect and its formula of social engineering also looked colorless.
In this election, BJP had made all efforts to break the tradition. First of all, to bridge the anti-incumbency wave, he cut the tickets of around two dozen sitting MLAs and gave a chance to more than five dozen new faces. In this sequence, BJP ignored even senior leaders like Jagdish Shettar and Lakshmi Saudi. The party had termed this strategy as a ‘generational change’ in the Karnataka BJP.
Social equalization strategy also failed
BJP has given tickets to candidates from Lingayat as well as Vokkaliga community and backward castes in large numbers to address the social equation. However, this formula also did not work for him. According to the election results, the Congress has secured a clear majority in the Karnataka elections. The Congress has won 133 seats in the 224-member assembly, while it is leading in three seats. If it wins the seats with an edge, then it can reach the figure of 136. This will be the biggest victory of the Congress after the 1989 assembly elections.
While the BJP, which won 104 seats in the last assembly elections, has so far won 64 seats, while its candidate is ahead in 01 seat. In this way, it seems to be limited to 65 seats. BJP got 40 seats in the 2013 assembly elections, 110 in 2008, 79 in 2004, 44 in 1999 and 40 in 1994.
It is also worth noting here that in the last 38 years, no ruling party has ever been able to return to power after winning the elections. This practice continued in this election also. In the year 2018, no party got a clear majority but the BJP, which emerged as the single largest party, staked claim to form the government and the government was formed under the leadership of senior leader BS Yeddyurappa. In this election, Congress was second and third respectively by winning 80 seats and JD(S) 37 seats.
However, his government fell within three days before the trust vote. Because Yeddyurappa could not muster the required numbers. Subsequently, the Congress-JD(S) coalition formed the government and Kumaraswamy became the chief minister. But within 14 months this government also fell. Because 17 MLAs resigned and they came out of the ruling coalition. All of them later joined the BJP and helped the party return to power.
Attempt to redeem Bajrang Dal also failed
Prime Minister Modi himself took the lead to counter Congress’s allegations of ’40 percent commission government’ and accused Congress of 85 percent commission government, citing an old statement of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. the prime minister karnataka assembly election Before entering the campaign, he had communicated with party workers across the state through digital medium. After this he addressed 18 public meetings and also did road shows at six places including Bengaluru.
The BJP also tried its best to capitalize on the promise made by the Congress to ban Bajrang Dal in its election manifesto. Both the BJP and Prime Minister Modi used this issue to accuse the Congress of being against Lord Anjaneya and the sentiments of Hindus. He also repeatedly announced ‘Jai Bajrangbali’ during the campaign. The results show that this attempt also proved unsuccessful.
The election of Karnataka was important for BJP’s organization general secretary BL Santhosh. After the president of the party, the post of organization general secretary is the most important in BJP. Santosh’s role was important in ticket distribution and selection of candidates, giving edge to the campaign and energizing the workers at the organization level. He himself also belongs to Karnataka. Earlier, BJP had to face defeat in Himachal Pradesh, the home state of its President JP Nadda.
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