WIN SOME, LOSE SOME

The Congress makes a dent in the BJP's tally, but its dwindling Vokkaliga support should be cause for alarm

- Ajay Sukumaran

IN late April, amid the high-voltage campaigning leading up to the first phase of the Lok Sabha election in Karnataka on April 26, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was thrilled to receive a unique souvenir from a law student in the state’s Arsikere region. Strung together into a garland were the ‘zero fare’ bus tickets she had collected since bus travel was made free for women in Karnataka by the Siddaramaiah government after taking office last year. The Congress’s welfare schemes have been a hit, especially among women, and it was this goodwill that the party was counting on for a double-digit haul in the Lok Sabha polls.

The jury is still out on whether these welfare schemes paid off. The Congress’s vote share has risen significantly but the Karnataka result hasn’t brought much cheer to the ruling party. The Siddaramaiah-led government was expecting to win in more than 14 of Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha constituencies, but it could manage to bag only nine. This, incidentally, was the exact number of seats the Congress had won in 2014 during Siddaramaiah’s first term as CM. Which means the Congress, which stormed to power in Karnataka in May 2023, has been unable to reverse the paradoxical pattern that has held in the state for the past two decades—of Karnataka voters drawing a clear line between who they vote for in the assembly polls and in the general elections.