Karnataka elections counting has started and the early trends suggest that no party is sweeping the polls, but BJP seems to be heading towards a simple majority. BJP is leading in most of the seats and is followed by Congress. JDS might play the role of kingmaker if it maintains the early lead it has gained at the start of counting and none of the national parties are getting a clear majority. The most shocking news would be incumbent Siddaramaiah trailing from Chamundeshwari while his opponent B Sriramulu from the BJP is giving him a tough fight in Badami constantly. Even in Badami, Siddaramaih trails every few minutes because the difference between him and Sriramalu is wafer thin.
BJP has maintained a clear lead in all the Bellwether seats till now, the Bellwether seats are the ones which are won by the party who ultimately forms the government. These Bellwether seats predict a win for the BJP if it maintains the lead it has gained in these seats. BJP is leading in most of the 8 Bellwether seats as of now.
Lingayat dominated seats too have BJP in the lead, it shows that the Congress’s moves to woo the Lingayat voters by dividing the Lingayat community has backfired. More problems for the Congress have emerged from the Eastern belt in Karnataka dominated by ST/SC seats. B Sriramulu, the biggest face of ST/SC community from the BJP has probably helped BJP in the eastern belt of Karnataka.
Bangalore has packed in another surprise for the Congress. The low turnout of voters in Bengaluru had led the exit polls to believe that anti-incumbency had been denied by the Bengaluru voters. But this trend which we have seen in the other places doesn’t seem to have worked in Bengaluru where there seems to be anti-incumbency despite a low turnout.
It was expected even before the counting started that Siddaramaiah would have a tough time winning any of the two seats. It was also expected that the Vokkaliga votes would go to the JDS and that the Lingayat move would backfire. As we can see both the Lingayat and ST/SC communities (among which the BJP has become popular of late) have heavily voted to the BJP. The only surprise remains to be the city of Bengaluru, the city might prove to be Siddaramaiah’s Waterloo.
