A fractured mandate has allowed the Janata Dal (Secular), which has been out of power for over a decade, to possibly form the government with the support of the Congress. However, the party’s performance has not been as expected as it not only lost crucial seats that were considered traditional bastions, but also returned with reduced tally this time.
Its tally of 38 seats is much lower than its anticipation of winning about 55 to 60 seats. The more worrying factor for the party is a loss of over 2% vote share — at 18.4%, its vote share is the lowest in the last four elections. The party, which formed an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party, keeping an eye on the SC and OBC vote bank, swept all the seven seats in Mandya district — the Vokkaliga heartland and its stronghold, and did well in Hassan and Mysuru districts too. In Hassan, however, it ceded ground to the BJP for the first time. In Mysuru, where its nominee defeated outgoing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the party did well in rural areas. The party, despite performing poorly, seems to have got an opportunity to form the government only because of the dismal performance of the Congress. For the party, the biggest disappointment has come from ‘peripheral’ Vokkaliga belt of Tumakuru, Chickballapur and Kolar districts.
In Tumakuru, the JD(S), which had held six seats, now has five seats. The loss in traditional strongholds is being attributed to division of the Vokkaliga votes. In Kolar, it retained one seat while it lost one of the two seats that it had held in Chickballapur.
