By R. Narayan
Small parties contesting Karnataka elections, in addition to home-coming of two BJP factions, may upset Congress calculations this year.
The party hopes to retain power and win more than 113 seats, but these parties may spoil its plan.
A scrutiny of previous records reveals that the Congress had gained considerably from three-way BJP vote-split. The party had not fought 2013 elections unitedly and was divided in three parts.
Two of its groups led by B S. Yeddyurappa and B. Sriramulu had contested previous elections separately. These two had garnered about 15 per cent votes. The former had got more than 10 per cent vote-share.
If these votes had been added to the party’s votes the percentage of the BJP votes would have almost equaled the percentage of votes of the Congress.
The BJP had collected about 20 per cent votes in the previous polls, while the Congress had got 36.5 per cent. With addition of 15 votes of the splinter groups, the BJP total would have gone up to 35.
As these groups have rejoined the party, the BJP is in a far better position than in 2013. Neither the BJP nor the Congress has bagged more than 36.5 per cent votes in last three elections.
Small parties may affect the Congress prospect further. Among these parties are Sharad Pawar’s NCP, Nitish Kumar’s JDU, Mayawati’s BSP and All-India Women Empowerment Party.
One impact they can make is reduce the victory margin in many seats to 1000 or below. It may help the BJP because of merger of Yeddyurappa’s and Sriramulu parties.
Hindusthan Samachar/ R.Narayan/ Shri Ram Shaw
