Possibility of Left joining hands with JD(S)-BSP worries Cong

The pre-poll alliance between HD Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as well as the possibility of the Left joining this alliance have increased worries for the Congress which is hoping for a repeat win in the poll bound state of Karnataka.

While BSP is not considered a consequential player, given their meagre vote share in Karnataka, the Congress is worried that it, in alliance with the JD(S), can garner substantial share of vote from the Dalit population.

The JD(S) that has a substantial OBC backing and had won 40 seats in 2013 elections with 20.45 per cent vote share may stand to benefit as the BSP could get it a large chunk of votes from the 17.15 per cent Scheduled Castes population of the state. In return the BSP may tend to gain much bigger vote share than 1.16 per cent share that it secured in the last election.

In case the Left parties join the alliance, it could further dent the Congress' share by a another 2-3 per cent.

Many leaders in the Congress are seeing it as a shrewd plan orchestrated by the BJP to gain seats by splitting votes and using it to form a coalition government in case BJP does not emerge as a clear winner.

Mayawati on February 17 had targeted the Congress for being "more anti-Dalit than the BJP". This has given more impetus to this conspiracy.