BJP lotus blooms as Congress power withers

TALKING HEADS: Experts on CNN-IBN debate BJP's winning streak ahead of the General Elections.

                                    

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Television, for politicians with a vision

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Poll battle: In old Mysore its keen fight between Cong, JD(S)
• BJP and JD(S) can't be friends again, says Advani
• Gowda's two sons find place in JDS first list

Keywords: JDS, Congress

The BJP's three-point poll plank during the Assembly elections in Karnataka – ‘betrayal, inflation and terrorism' – thrashed the Congress' virtual one-point agenda of 'stability' in Karnataka.

The final tally showed the BJP had won 110 seats in the 224-seat Assembly while the Congress improved its tally since 2004, but the JD(S) ate away its votes.

With the fresh victory the BJP on Sunday extended a winning streak ahead of the General Elections due in early next year.

So what went wrong with the Congress and JDS in Karnataka? Did the anti-incumbency factor lead to BJP’s victory in the south of Vindhyas? Or was it the great betrayal by the Gowdas and the JDS that led to the saffron party flying its flag high in the state?

Experts and politicians from across party lines took part in a marathon debate with CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai and political analyst Yogendra Yadav to delineate the Assembly elections in Karnataka.

The panel of experts comprised of Congress leaders Kapil Sibal and Prithviraj Chavan, BJP leaders Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Prakash Javadekar, Executive VP of Cranes Software Rajeeva Karandikar, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta and Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh.

BJP claims south poll

Jaitley, who micro-managed the BJP’s election campaign in Karnataka, said there were several factors that enabled his party to reach 110 seats from 79 in the last Assembly elections.

“We had a leader in Yeddyurappa who added value to the party’s campaign. He helped in expanding the party’s social base. We also focussed on issues like stability within the state, which had a direct link to politics of opportunism and the betrayal by JDS. We also focussed on price rise, farmers’ plight and the Centre’s soft policy on terrorism,” Jaitley explained.

Comparing the Congress’s campaign with the BJP in Karnataka, he said, “Five of the BJP’s national leaders addressed election rallies in the state in the last one month, in comparison Congress’s campaign was quite modest.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had addressed just one rally in the state while Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi went for a quick tour. So, is election management one of the many problems ailing the Congress?

KEY WINNERS