Congress scores a clear majority by bagging 121 seats out of the 223 seats for which elections were held.
The Congress has stormed back to power in the state after eight years with the electorate punishing the BJP for its bad governance, corruption and infighting for power.
The stage is set to see a single party rule almost after a decade as the Congress scored a clear majority by bagging 121 seats out of the 223 seats for which the elections were held in the 224 state assembly.
Election for the Periyapatna constituency has been postponed following the death of a BJP candidate.
The ruling BJP’s strength slumped from its 2008 score of 110 to 40 and it is the JD(S) that sprung a big surprise as the party has come on par with the BJP by winning 40 seats. The voters dashed the hopes of former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa’s ambition of emerging as a king maker as his new regional party, the KJP, managed to win just six seats, but succeeded in playing a big role in the defeat of the BJP candidates in many constituencies. Another new regional party, the BSR Congress floated by Sriramulu, bagged just four seats.
The Congress, which has scored big gains in almost all the regions, failed to crush the BJP in Bangalore Urban city which has 28 seats. The Congress raised its tally in the city to 13 from its earlier score of 10, while the BJP’s strength in the city slumped to 12 from the earlier 17, while JD(S) has improved its performance from the earlier just one seat to three now.
Big victory, bigger expectations
The victory of the Congress has brightened the prospects of seeing a stable government, but the challenges ahead is humongous as Bangalore, the global IT hub that is the engine of economic growth of the state, is creeking under its own weight due to continued negligence of its immediate needs.
The city with a population of almost one crore, is sitting on a garbage bomb that was swept under the carpet by the previous BJP government. Failing to keep its promise of setting up facilities for scientific disposal of garbage, the villagers of Mandur are gearing up to confront the new government to fulfill the promise of shifting the garbage dump there.
The new government will have to find new source of drinking water for the growing city as the state cannot draw any additional water from the Cauvery river as the state has already reached its maximum share of 19TMC of water from Cauvery for drinking water purpose.
Lack of a comprehensive plan to tackle the city’s traffic congestion and provide effective public transport system is another challenge that has defied solution so far. Rejuvenation of lakes in and around the city that are fast disappearing and protecting the city’s greenery too should get top priority for the new government.
Big guns who won
Outgoing chief minister Jagadish Shettar, his predecessors BS Yeddyurappa, HD Kumaraswamy, deputy chief minister R Ashoka, former deputy chief minister Siddramaiah, former minister Sriramulu, BJP candidate from Rajajinagar constituency S Sureshkumar and head of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise(NICE) Ashok Kheni (Karnataka Makkala Paksha) figure among the prominent personalities who won in the election.
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