Karnataka Civic Poll Outcome Boosts Congress-JD(S) Coalition Ahead of 2019

Congress and Janata Dal (Secular), coalition partners ruling Karnataka, have emerged victorious in the first phase of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and city corporation elections, securing more than 52% of the total seats, despite contesting separately. These results have come as a major setback to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) signalling a downward trend in its overall support base ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Of the total 2,527 seats in the 102 ULBs, Congress has become the single largest party winning in 946, followed by BJP which won in 875 seats,  the JD(S) won 375 seats and independent candidates bagged 315 seats. In the polls held on August 29, the voter turnout was recorded as 68%. The second phase of the ULB polls are likely to be held in early 2019.

In the 21 districts where polls were held, Congress won in 11 districts, the BJP in seven, the JD(S) in two districts. In one Belagavi district, independent candidates won in majority of the seats.

In the three city corporations - Mysuru, Shimoga and Tumkuru - of the 135 seats, the BJP won in 54 seats, while the Congress and the JD(S) won 36 and 30 seats, respectively. In Shimoga, as the BJP secured majority seats (20 of 35 seats), its candidate is set to become the mayor, while the remaining two corporations are likely to be headed by the ruling coalition, as no party bagged majority seats.

Commentators had earlier criticised the move of the Congress and the JD(S) to contest separately in the local body polls within just three months of forming the government after a hung verdict in the recent assembly elections. However, as the combined score of the two parties put BJP on the losing side, leaders of both the parties seem satisfied with the outcome and are expecting the verdict to encourage them to jointly fight in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Reiterating the Congress and the JD(S) resolve, former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda said: “Wherever we can form a coalition government to keep the BJP out of power, we will certainly to it.” Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy stated that the results were a “befitting answer” to those criticising the coalition government.

Although the BJP emerged as the single largest party (104 seats out of 222) in the recent assembly elections, its vote share stood at 36.3% which is nearly 2% less than that of the Congress (38%), while the JD(S) secured 18.3% votes. The combined vote share of the parties in coalition was 56.3%.

“We are holding preparatory meetings in districts and constituencies for the Lok Sabha polls,” said, KC Venugopal, Congress party general secretary in-charge of Karnataka.

Of the total 28 Lok Sabha MPs from the state, BJP currently has 17 MPs, highest number of MPs that the saffron party holds from a South Indian state, followed by the Congress with nine MPs and two MPs from the JD(S). With the new electoral developments in the state, the 2019 general elections will not be an easy ride for the BJP, which is power at the Centre.