Jubilant BJP to form govt in Karnataka

It's time for jubilation for the Bhartiya Janata Party again after it won the Karnataka state assembly poll on Sunday, while for the Congress after facing the humiliating defeat it's again a time to introspect on what gave its chief rival party an edge.

In the 224-member legislative assembly the BJP emerged as the largest party by clinching 110 seats just short of 3 seats to prove its simple majority in the Vidhan Sabha followed by Congress at the second place with 80 and the regional Janata Dal (Secular) with mere 28 seats.

The BJP needs just three more seats to prove its majority, which it claimed to obtain the Independent Candidates, who were willingly ready to support the major Saffron party.

Overwhelmed by the stunning win the main Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha and the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, L K Advani in his reaction said the “triumphant performance of the BJP in the Karnataka polls would be a turning point for the approaching general elections”.

The victory of Karnataka polls vindicated his claim which Advani made after the party's decisive victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh last year that “2008 would turn out to be a Year of Change” in national politics.

The Saffron party leader recalled that the BJP rose steadily to such position today by liquidating Congress' one-party domination at the Centre and thus transformed India's polity into a bi-polar system.

After commencing the party's journey in 1980, the BJP just won two seats in 1984, which rose to 86 in the 1989 Lok Sabha and thereafter the party's victory march became unstoppable and led to the formation of the BJP-led NDA government in 1998.

As far as Karnataka is concerned, the BJP had just two members in 1985, and now has reached to position to form a government in the state. The BJP's win is not an addendum one, rather an outcome of the hard work which resulted in its steadily winning four seats in 1989, 40 in 1994, 44 in 1999, 79 in 2004 and now that elevated to 110 seats just three short of a simple majority.

After northern and western states, and later in Orissa and Bihar in the east, now the BJP has started poll winning expedition towards the southern state as for the first time the Saffron party is in a position to form the government in southern state.

A number of factors contributed to BJP's decisive win ranging from the sympathy card after being betrayed by the JD (S) last November, to a united image by putting up a clear CM candidate-Yediyurappa. Reaching to masses to remove people's misunderstanding that the party were dominated by Lingayats only, the BJP did not leave any stone unturned to woo the Vokkaligas too. Yediyurappa belongs to the Lingayat community.

For the Congress as compare to last 2004 polls, though it has improved its performance by winning 80 seats, but failed to restrict BJP from forming the government at its own. This is successive defeat of the Congress in the assembly polls after mainly Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Price rise, not putting up S M Krishna as the CM's candidate at the ripe time, no proper coordination, no proper campaign strategy etc.-all contributed to its defeat.

The 2008 state's assembly polls brought disastrous defeat to the local party JD (S) as it shrunk to mere 28 seats compared to 59 in 2004. JD (S) betrayal picture played significantly to its decline and the assembly poll '08' led the kingmaker Gowda to bite the dust.