JOIN USKarnataka Assembly Elections 2023: With just 19 seats, is it end of road for JD(S)?
With all its calculations going awry, the JD(S) has been relegated to 19 seats, making this its worst performance since its birth in 1999.
Some of the reasons attributed to the debacle include disputes within the party and the party supremo H D Deve Gowda’s family over tickets, replacing candidates overnight, party workers not being active on the ground and fielding turncoats in place of the party’s candidates.
In the 2018 elections, JD(S) won 37 seats. Later, it lost three lawmakers to ‘Operation Lotus’. This time, the JD(S) could not even retain its previous numbers, losing heavily in its Vokkaliga bastion of Old Mysore.
Mandya and Hassan were the two Lok Sabha segments where JD(S) had control. In 2018, it won all seven seats in Mandya district and later lost one to ‘Operation Lotus’ (K R Pet). This time, the party managed to win just one seat in Mandya - KR Pet.
The party workers frown that their lone fighter - H D Kumaraswamy - failed to focus on this region thinking it was safe.
In the Mandya city constituency, differences within the party and the sitting MLA going against the party, Vijayananda, grandson of former MP Shankare Gowda, who contested as a rebel, was a big loss to JD(S).
The situation was similar even in Hassan where JD(S) lost three more seats this time.
In 2018, of the six, five were won by JD(S). This time, JD(S) managed to retain its seat in Hassan city which was snatched by BJP in 2018. But JD(S) lost Belur and Sakleshpur to BJP where it was winning constantly. In Arasikere, it fielded BJP leader N R Santosh as its MLA Shivalinge Gowda joined Congress and emerged as the winner.
Though being the only regional party and Kumaraswamy touring around 100 constituencies ahead of national parties in the name of Pancha Rathna Yatre, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda entering the field despite his ill health, the party was unable to gain
popularity.
Reacting to the results Kumaraswamy said, “We welcome the mandate of people and it is the final in the democratic set-up. We accept victory and defeat with the same mindset.”