18 rallies in 19 out of 31 districts, 6 roadshows, PM’s power did not show in the results of Karnataka

The results of the Karnataka Assembly Elections-2023 have come. While on one hand there is an atmosphere of celebration in the Congress camp, on the other hand it has become time for introspection for the Bharatiya Janata Party. In fact, the Lok Sabha elections are going to be held in the month of May 2024 only one year after the Karnataka assembly elections.

In such a situation, the Karnataka elections were also being seen as a litmus test. The Bharatiya Janata Party is in power at the Center for the last nine years. To register its victory in the Karnataka assembly elections 2023 and remain in power, this party had put all its efforts from heel to toe. Prime Minister Modi had left no stone unturned in the election campaign. But after the results came out, it is clearly visible that this effort of PM Modi could not bring color in Karnataka.

After the victory of the Congress in Karnataka before the Lok Sabha elections, the debate has once again started whether the Congress is now capable of giving a tough fight to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Or has Narendra Modi’s road to the Lok Sabha elections become difficult?

PM Modi’s campaign

In Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had worked hard to get the BJP victory. During the election campaign, PM Modi attended 17 rallies in the entire seven days and also did five roadshows.

BJP wanted their party to win in Karnataka so that it could use this victory as a symbol in the coming elections.

During the Karnataka election campaign, PM Modi spent two nights in nine days outside Delhi so that he could do maximum rallies and roadshows during the campaign. He was also more focused on Karnataka because no ruling party has been able to return to power in this state since 1985 and the PM wanted to change this practice of the state and the fortunes of his party this time.

Campaigning of BJP leaders including Prime Minister Modi

The most active Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen during the election campaign on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He campaigned for 7 days between 29 April to 7 May. PM held rallies and road shows in 19 out of 31 districts of the state. During the Karnataka election campaign, PM Modi held 18 rallies and 6 roadshows. He covered 28 assembly seats through road shows. The PM concluded his election campaign after visiting Srikanteshwara Temple in Mysore.

On the other hand, if we talk about Home Minister Amit Shah, he also campaigned in Karnataka for 9 days between 21st April to 7th May. Shah held rallies and road shows in 19 out of 31 districts in the state, including 16 rallies and 20 road shows.

UP Chief Minister among the star campaigners of the party Yogi Adityanath also campaigned hard for the BJP in Karnataka. He held rallies and roadshows in 9 out of 31 districts between 26 April and 6 May. CM Yogi did 10 rallies and 3 road shows in the state.

Apart from this, 40 big leaders of BJP including BJP National President JP Nadda, Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister Smriti Irani were included in the list of BJP’s star campaigners.

Why did the PM’s campaign not show in the results?

On May 10, 72.82 percent people voted in 224 assembly seats in Karnataka. The results of this assembly election came out on May 13, in which any party needs a magic figure of 113 seats to come to power. While the Congress crossed the majority mark and won 135 seats, the BJP had to face defeat with just 66 seats. While Deve Gowda’s party JDS, which is called Kingmaker, will have to work from only 19 seats.

Now the question arises that even after such vigorous campaigning of BJP, why did the public choose Congress only?

The biggest reason for this was that instead of national issues, the election of Karnataka was focused on local issues and Congress won in it. Where Congress talked more on issues like rising inflation and unemployment, corruption, law and order and reservation during the campaign. At the same time, there was a lack of this thing in BJP.

BJP became dependent on PM Modi for electoral victory. Karnataka election results have proved that repeatedly depending on PM Modi for electoral victory can be fatal for BJP.

The result of this election has proved that Hindu-Muslim polarization cannot continue in every state. In 2014, a few months before the BJP came to power, there were riots in western Uttar Pradesh. The result of which was that BJP, which has been searching for its land in UP for a long time, got the benefit of Hindu-Muslim polarization. This party had made a similar effort during this Karnataka election campaign too, but it did not work.

Prime Minister due to BJP’s defeat Narendra Modi how much damage

The process of assembly elections to be held before the Lok Sabha elections 2024 is not over yet. At present, elections are going to be held in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha in April next year and Lok Sabha elections will be held in the month of May.

In such a situation, before the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress winning the Karnataka assembly elections with a majority cannot be good news for the BJP. At present, the presence of Bharatiya Janata Party is not much in these three states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

However, it cannot be ignored that voters give different mandates in assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections. Take Rajasthan as an example. The Congress had won the assembly elections held in Rajasthan in the year 2018, but in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won 24 out of 25 seats in the same state.

The results of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh also remained similar. In such a situation, Congress cannot be sure about this victory that it will get victory in the Lok Sabha also. For example in the year 2013 karnataka assembly election Take it. In this election, the Bharatiya Janata Party got only 40 seats out of 224 assembly seats, but in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, that party had won 17 out of 28 seats. At the same time, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections also, BJP won 25 out of 28 seats.

How many total voters are there in the state?

According to the Election Commission, there are a total of 5.21 crore voters in Karnataka, there is very little difference between women and men in these total voters. The total number of male voters in the state is 2.62 crore, while the female voters are around 2.59 crore.

In this election, there were 9.17 lakh voters who exercised their right to vote for the first time. Apart from this, there are 41,000 such voters, who would have turned 18 on April 1, 2023, and would have got the right to vote in the assembly elections.

Explain that out of 224 assembly seats in Karnataka, 36 seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates, 15 seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates.

Vote percentage of BJP in the year 2018

If we look at the results of the assembly elections held in the year 2018, in the last election, Congress was ahead of BJP (36.22% vote percentage) with 38.04% vote share. Whereas JDS’s vote percentage was 17.7 per cent.

Vote percentage in the year 2023

There itself year 2023 In the result, BJP got only 36% vote percentage. Whereas there has been a big increase in the vote percentage of Congress. Congress has got about 43 percent votes and JDS’s vote percentage is 13 percent.

Which clearly means that even though this time the Bharatiya Janata Party is far behind the Congress in terms of seats, the party has not been affected much in terms of vote percentage. At the same time, the vote of JDS seems to be shifting towards Congress this time and that is the reason why the party went towards a bumper victory.