The shrinking third space in Karnataka

The 2014 Lok Sabha elections has seen the space for non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and non-Congress alternatives shrink further in Karnataka, with the vote share of all other parties and Independents together adding up to just 16.2 per cent.

While the space for regional or any other third formation has always been relatively slim in Karnataka, when compared to the neighbouring southern States, this space has shrunk progressively over the years.

In 2009 LS elections, the Congress and the BJP together polled 79.28 per cent of the votes and the rest got 20.72 per cent. This means that the space for any third political presence has shrunk by 4.53 percentage points between the two elections.

The votes share of the Congress and the BJP together in 2004 Lok Sabha elections was 71.59 per cent and the others together 28.41 per cent. The other parties lost significant ground — nearly eight per cent — between 2004 and 2009.

JD(S) space

It is significant that the Janata Dal (Secular), which had 10.85 per cent vote share in 1999 and increased to 20.45 per cent in 2004, has done badly since. The share was reduced to 13.58 in 2009 and was down to 11 per cent this time around. The undivided Janata Dal had garnered 16 seats and 34.9 percent of the votes in 1996.

This time, the Janata Dal (United) candidates, another splinter of the erstwhile Janata Parivar, contested in six seats and together polled 11,867 votes of which the highest was 3,970. Their State president, B. Somashekar, joined the BJP just before the polls.

The story of the Left parties has never been optimistic when it comes to parliamentary elections in Karnataka. The overall vote share of Left parties is about 0.3 per cent in 2014, while in absolute numbers they have gained around 20,000 votes when compared to 2009.

BSP decline

The vote share of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Karnataka replicates the trend elsewhere. The party’s vote share in Karnataka decreased from 1.65 per cent in 2009 to 0.9 per cent in this election. In absolute terms, the votes have gone down from 4.07 lakh to 2.65 lakh. The new entrant, Aam Aadmi Party, which was expected to do well in Bangalore among the metros outside Delhi, got 0.8 per cent vote share here, which is marginally lower than the share of votes polled for None of the Above (NOTA).