BJP's margin rose only in 3 Karnataka seats amid Congress pushback

The BJP’s victory margin rose compared to 2019 in only three Lok Sabha seats that it retained this time - Shimoga, Bangalore North and Mysore-Kodagu in the state.

The Congress managed to close the gap in other seats, which is a testimony to the fight posed by the grand old party. 

Even veterans like Ramesh Jigajinagi and Pralhad Joshi saw their victory margin getting reduced. Their seats are among the 12 where BJP lost its substantial lead to the Congress.

The state BJP leaders had anticipated that the victory margin could get slashed during the post-poll meeting held in the second week of May. 

The BJP had won 25 out of the 28 seats in 2019 and its average victory margin stood at around 1.75 lakh votes.

The Congress all along believed that the party will be able to win seats by overcoming such a huge margin, due to the implementation of the mostly women-centric five guarantee schemes. 

State BJP spokesperson Prakash Shesharaghavachar told DH that the party’s preliminary task was to ensure that Congress does not cross single-digit performance as this is the home state of AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge. 

“In the process, we lost the lead to the Congress in some seats,” he said and added that the party would analyse these aspects during its meetings, so as to take corrective steps. 

Party sources told DH that but for the alliance with JD(S), it would not have been possible to prevent the Congress from steamrolling the BJP. 

“Timely alliance with JD(S) and leaders of both parties walking the extra mile in the constituencies to unite workers at the grassroots level helped in taming the Congress in old Mysore region. Had there been a triangular contest, there was a strong possibility of Congress winning more seats,” sources said. 

The alliance succeeded in restricting the Congress to just two seats, Hassan and Chamarajanagar, out of the 14 seats that went to polls during the first phase on April 26.