Congress Wins Karnataka By-Elections

Sets the tone for the 2018 Assembly Elections

Background:

Bi-Elections in two assembly constituencies of Nanjangud and Gundlupet were held on the 9^th of April 2017.

The ruling party- The Indian National Congress retained both the seats. The Congress’ Kalale N Keshavamurthy defeated his nearest rival V Srinivas Prasad (BJP) by over 21,000 votes in Nanjangud., Geetha Mahadevaprasad won the Gundlupet assembly constituency by over 10,000 votes, the BJP Candidate C S Niranjan Kumar, both the seats were held by the Congress.

Why were the bi-elections held?

The by-elections were necessitated in Gundulpet following the death of cooperation minister Mahadevaprasad while in Nanjangud, it was caused by the resignation of Srinivas Prasad as Congress MLA after he was dropped from the ministry.

Srinivas had switched over to the BJP, while Keshavamurthy had contested the 2013 assembly polls on a JD(S) ticket.

What do the results indicate?

Congress invested a lot of resources and time in order to retain both the seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party worked hard to clinch a gain and prove a point that it will be the favourite in the general elections.

With almost the entire state cabinet campaigning, the Congress believed that anti-incumbency, which is an all-important factor in any election, is non-existent since it has administered the State to the best of its efficiency while the BJP thought the results would set the stage to regain control of the State. 

Assessment

In reality the contest was really between State BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in both the constituencies. Mr Yeddyurappa was keen to show that he still had the undivided support of the Lingayat Community, which is a dominant community in both constituencies, while Mr Siddaramiah had to prove that he was still the mass leader capable of bringing in huge votes. What was interesting to note is that both Gundlupet and Nanjangud has a large dalit (AHINDA) population , and their votes definitely did have a bearing on the results today. This result definitely sets up the stage and tone for the State Assembly Elections.