Karnataka Election Results: Congress got its pre-match strategies right, BJP misread the pitch

Supporters of opposition Congress party celebrate early leads for the party in the Karnataka state elections in Bengaluru. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Congress leaders and workers no doubt deserve ample credit for the party’s victory in Karnataka, but they also have to thank the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for making their task easy. Charges of rampant corruption, maladministration and communal disharmony dug the grave for BJP, and even a carpet bombing campaign by national leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others could not save the day for the party.

While the Congress did capitalise on the BJP’s weakness, what exactly did the party do right?

What Congress Got Right

The initial days of the campaign was marked with confusion among the workers with both former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President DK Shivakumar staking claim for the top post. However, both corrected course midway and took a common stand that the new Chief Minister would be decided by the MLAs and the high command. This put to rest all speculation of a leadership tussle, encouraging the rank and file to work as one team.

The Congress adopted a two-pronged approach.  The first was to expose the shortcomings of the BJP government. The second was to highlight its own promises to the electorate. The Congress also refused to be drawn into a debate on Hindutva and other emotive issues, despite BJP’s best efforts, thereby ensuring that the agenda did not get diverted.

Latching on to allegations of corruption quite early in the day, the Congress launched the #PayCM campaign where it stuck posters of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai all over town with a QR code, followed with a blistering attack on 40 percent sarkar. The Karnataka State Contractors Association (KSCA) and several other organisations including religious mutts had accused the government of collecting bribes to sanction civil works or to release funds.

The Congress also issued a signed guarantee card to the voters promising to implement the assurances given in the manifesto if elected to power. The five guarantees were: 10 kg food grains to every BPL family, Rs 2,000 monthly allowance for a woman head of family, free bus travel for women, 200 units of free electricity and an unemployment dole.

The party also embarked on a bold media campaign hitting the BJP where it hurt the most, by publishing a rate card of bribes charged by the government for different services and for posting of bureaucrats.

Where BJP Erred

The BJP’s campaign, on the other hand, completely lacked focus. For one, it contemptuously dismissed the 40 percent bribe charge made by the contractors and refused to order an inquiry. To make matters worse, the Prime Minister too failed to intervene even after the contractors submitted a written complaint to him. Thus, the corruption charges stuck.

Read more on our Karnataka Election Results coverage here 

Instead of going to the people on the performance of the government, BJP leaders raised irrelevant issues with an aim to communalise the elections. State unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel announced that Tipu Sultan and Savarkar would be the main election issues while Higher Education Minister  C Ashwath Narayan gave a call to “finish off” Congress leader Siddaramaiah just as the fictional Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda had “killed” Tipu. The Prime Minister himself sought to give a religious touch to the Congress promise to ban communal outfits like Bajrang Dal and PFI, by invoking the name of Hanuman, but it did not cut any ice with the people.

If the BJP assumed that the Hindutva plank would work in Karnataka as in some Northern states, it was absolutely mistaken as the results indicate. The people of Karnataka being progressive and better educated seem to have given a thumbs down to divisive politics. The social unrest that prevailed in society after Bommai took over as the Chief Minister also went against BJP.

The BJP strategy of virtually sidelining local leaders and instead betting all its chips on Modi and other national leaders also did not pay off. While these rallies and road shows attracted huge crowds, they did not translate to votes.

The Lingayats were also miffed by what was seen as an attempt by the Brahmin lobby within the RSS to sideline them. The denial of tickets to senior leaders like Jagadish Shettar and Laxman Savadi only seemed to confirm this. The Congress successfully painted the BJP as anti-Lingayat.

The people also did not fall for the new reservation policy which was announced solely with an eye on the elections.

While the Congress got its act together right from day one, the BJP not only failed to see which way the wind was blowing, but also remained over-confident to the point of arrogance. If there is one message these elections have sent out loud and clear, it is: “Do not underestimate the power of the common man.”

Gautham Machaiah is a senior journalist and political commentator based in Bengaluru. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.