A Ploy To Beat Anti-Incumbency That Did Not Work For The BJP In Karnataka

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

When the BJP changed the Chief Minister in Karnataka, it had hoped that it could buck the anti-incumbency factor like it did in Uttarakhand and Gujarat.

Analysts say that that this is a gamble the BJP ought not to have taken as it caused a great deal of resentment among the very powerful Lingayat community.

The BJP did all it could, but failed to pull off Karnataka. The campaign pitch was surrounded around the double engine government, development and Hindutva. None of this worked for the party. The caste arithmetic and anti-incumbency factor were some of the main reasons why the party lost the state.

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When compared to the 2018 elections, the BJP was down from 104 to 64.

To change the way Karnataka votes has been hard for any party to crack. The state has never voted a party back to power twice in a row since the past 27 years.

However what the party would be feeling the pinch about is that this defeat has to a large extent dampened the party’s plans to expand its footprint in South India.

Analysts would also argue that there was a lot of discontent against the BJP government.

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Changing the CM was also a gamble that did not pay off. Some party insiders say that Yediyurappa should have taken a call on stepping down as CM on his own and should have been told what to do. The Lingayat community usually does not take such things lightly and one must remember what the community did to the Congress after Veerendra Patil was told to step down by Rajiv Gandhi.