Bangalore, May 26: BJP got a lesser vote share than
the Congress in Karnataka for the second consecutive time in
assembly elections but the saffron party was perched on the
top of the seat tally on both the occasions.
And this time around, a 5.3 per cent swing in favour of
the saffron party saw it get an additional 31 seats to break
the century barrier in a dream run that helped the lotus bloom
for the first time in the south, according to voting
percentages available with the Election Commission.
The trend of a higher vote share like in the case of
Congress not translating into seats is not uncommon, say
election observers, adding that minor vote swings can have an
impact on seat tallies.
The BJP got 33.8 per cent votes in the 2008 elections to
garner 110 seats and emerge the single largest party but a
marginally higher vote share for the Congress did not yield
corresponding dividends.
The Congress polled 34.5 per cent votes to get 80 seats.
However, it had the consolation of getting 15 more seats
despite its vote share shrinking by 0.8 per cent. Last time
the Congress got 35.3 per cent votes.
In 2004 elections too, the BJP was placed second in terms
of ballots polled getting 28.5 per cent votes but was on top
of the seat table getting 79 seats.
Bureau Report
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