Celebrations at Congress headquarters in New Delhi as the party takes lead in Karnataka election results on May 13, 2023. (PK Das/News18)
Karnataka election results 2023: All these 10 seats are ones that saw the margin of victory drop to 5% in the last three Assembly elections
As Karnataka election results trickle in, the Congress is currently leading in eight of the 10 swing seats in Karnataka, while the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) are leading on one each. The grand old party is also maintaining its lead over the ruling BJP in the race to each the 112-mark in the 224-seat Karnataka Assembly, while the JD(S) is geared up to play kingmaker again.
All these 10 seats are ones that saw the margin of victory drop to 5% in the last three Karnataka Assembly election results.
The swing seats where Congress candidates are leading are:
- Ramdurg in Belgaum district
- Nagthan in Bijapur district
- Stupid in Haveri district
- Hirekerur in Haveri district
- Ranibennur in Haveri district
- Sringeri in Chikmagalur district
- Chintamani in Chikkaballapur district
- Hosakote in Bengaluru Rural
The BJP is leading in Tumkur City seat in Tumkur district, while JDS is leading in Periyapatna seat in Mysore district.
Like it has been the trend for about the last two decades, Karnataka witnessed a three-cornered contest, with a direct fight between the said parties in most of the constituencies.
Majority mandate was the pitch by leaders of all political parties during the high-decibel Karnataka election campaign that ended on Monday, as they stressed on getting a clear mandate to form a strong and stable government, unlike what happened after the 2018 polls.
In 2018, the BJP had emerged as the single largest party by winning 104 seats, followed by Congress with 80 seats and JD(S) 37. There was also one Independent member, while the BSP and Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) got one legislator each elected.
The Congress-JD(S) alliance formed the government with HD Kumaraswamy as CM, but the wobbly dispensation collapsed in 14 months, triggered by the resignation of 17 ruling coalition legislators and their subsquent defection to the BJP. This enabled the BJP’s return to power. In the bypolls held subsequently in 2019, the ruling party won 12 out of 15 seats.
In the outgoing Assembly, the ruling BJP has 116 MLAs, followed by the Congress 69, JD(S) 29, BSP one, independents two, speaker one and vacant six (following deaths and resignations to join other parties ahead of the polls).
