K'taka poll: BJP three short of majority

The battle of the ballot for Karnataka has ended and the Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged as the single largest party with 110 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Legislative Assembly. The Congress came second with 80 seats while the JD-S picked up 28 and others six seats.

Although the BJP has emerged the winner, it still needs another three seats to form the government in Karnataka. The BJP which says that it will swear in B S Yeddyurappa as chief minister on May 28 will have to prove its majority on the floor of the House in a week. This however depends on the Governor T N Chaturvedi who is the final authority to fix a date for any party to prove the majority on the floor of the House.

Counting began at 8 am across Karnataka and through the day, the BJP had a steady lead over its opponents. In the first and second phases, the BJP and the Congress were in a neck and neck fight, but gradually as the day progressed the BJP took the lead.

The JD-S on its part had a steady dismal showing all though the day. The party's fortunes fluctuated between the 20 and 30 figure mark all through the day. The party finally ended up with 28 seats.

If one takes a look at the voting pattern, the BJP has won pretty consistently across the state. However, the major gains have come from the second phase of the elections. Unlike the previous elections, the party fared well in the third phase of the polls too. The party had done well in these two phases in the previous elections too. However the gains that has pushed its mark up to 110 is thanks to the first phase where the Vokkaliga and minority vote bank split much to the dismay of both the Congress and the JD-S.

The Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal-United which had proclaimed that it would manage to win a considerable amount of seats did not open their account. The only hope for the SP was Bangarappa and his son, Madhu Bangarapa, but the two did not manage to make any sort of an impact on the voter. The numerous rallies by Mayawati too did not manage to sway the votes in favour of the BSP, thus giving the indication that Karnataka is still all about just three parties.

The JD-U suffered after it fell out with the BJP on the seat sharing issue. The party which had managed a couple of seats in the last elections did not manage to win even a single seat this year.

The CPI-M (one seat) and the five other independents were a surprise. Interestingly these candidates would have a crucial role to play in the formation of the government.

Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy of JD-S won Ramanagaram seat for the second consecutive time beating his nearest BJP rival M Rudresh by a margin of 47,260 votes. Congress's Mamata Nichhani, daughter of former chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde was in the third position.

Former minister and Congress heavyweight R V Deshpande lost the Haliyal seat to JD-S's Sunil Hegde by a margin of 5,425 votes.

The BJP's Narasimha Naik bagged the Shorapur seat, beating his nearest Congress rival Raja Venktappa Naik by 4,000 votes, while former minister B Sriramulu defeated Ramprasad of Congress in Bellary Rural (Reserved) by over 25,000 votes. In Sullia (SC), BJP's S Angara humbled Dr Raghu of Congress by over 5,300 votes.

Former chief minister Dharam Singh lost to BJP's Doddappa Gowda Patil Naribol in Jewargi by a margin of 612 votes. KPCC president M Mallikarjun Kharge won by a margin of 17,456 votes. 

In Kumta, Dinakar Keshav Shetty of JD-S won by a slender margin of 20 votes against his nearest Congress rival.

Former deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah (Congress) won the Varuna seat.