WILL CONGRESS GET MAJORITY ON ITS OWN?

By Khaja Pasha / Bangalore

With exit polls widely predicting a Congress victory in Karnataka Assembly elections, the burning question now is whether the party would gain majority on its own, as counting of votes is taken up tomorrow.

Some of these polls have put the Congress tally in the 224-member House at anywhere between 110 and 132, with the ruling BJP a distant loser; 113 seats would be required for majority.

Now, the recurrent question being asked is if there will be a situation where the Congress falls short of numbers. Some leaders of Karnataka Janatha Paksha (KJP) of former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa have said in private that the party is ready to support a Congress government,if it comes to that.
But it's not clear if the Congress would accept KJP support, particularly as it had gone hammer and tongs against Yeddyurappa when he was the Chief Minister and faced corruption charges. The Congress is hoping that it would not have to depend on others to form government.

Prima facie, it appears that Yeddyurappa may have accomplished his task to decimate the BJP, by chipping away a few percentage of votes. In the last elections, the BJP had secured nearly one per cent votes less than Congress but still managed to bag 30 seats more than it.

KJP's stance post the election-results is keenly watched as it's predicted to bag about only two dozen seats, at the most.

BSR Congress of former BJP Minister B Sriramulu is also expected to dent the prospects of the saffron party in some constituencies, adding to its woes.

Elections were held to 223 segments on Sunday, after the one in Periyapatna in Mysore district was countermanded to May 28 following the death of BJP candidate. At 71.29 per cent, the voter turnout was the second highest in the state history, after 71.90 per cent in 1978.

Counting of the single phase poll would be taken up at 8 AM tomorrow at 36 centres and with electronic voting machines having been used in all segments, the results are expected to be known by noon, sources in Election Commission said.

The Congress is not in power in the state for about seven years now.

The then Chief Minister N Dharam Singh of the Congress ran a coalition with JDS of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda before the latter withdrew support in 2006, after Assembly elections two years earlier threw up a hung verdict.

The Congress came to power on its own the last time around in 1999 when it recorded a landslide victory, with S M Krishna becoming Chief Minister.

The BJP came to power on its own steam in 2008 on the back of a sympathy wave, after the then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy reneged on the promise to hand over Chief Ministership to the BJP after leading the coalition for the first 20 months.