Karnataka election 2023: Congress seeks big victory margin to tackle BJP’s 'tricks'

Ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections in May, Congress leaders are confident of winning 130 seats but eye a greater margin of victory to stop the BJP from poaching its MLAs, reports ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday urged the Karnataka voters to ensure a greater margin of victory to check the BJP from poaching party MLAs later on. “I appeal to the people of Karnataka to give Congress a greater margin of victory as there is a trend of the BJP stealing MLAs,” Kharge said.

“This has happened in many states before. If we have a big majority, MLAs won’t have the power to destabilize the government by threatening to leave,” he said. According to party insiders, Kharge was referring to the incidents that cost the Congress its governments not only in Karnataka but in Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh earlier.

In the 2018 Karnataka assembly polls, the Congress had won more seats (80) than the JD-S (37) but still offered the chief minister’s post to HD Kumaraswamy to keep the BJP (104) out of power. The JD-S-Congress alliance was going fine till 2019 when the BJP came to power through the backdoor by defeating the HD Kumaraswamy government in a trust vote by poaching 17 Congress lawmakers. All the 17 leaders have been given tickets this time while many old-timers of the saffron party were left out leading to a revolt of sorts.

In the 224-member Karnataka House, a party needs to secure 113 seats to be able to form a government. Though the Congress managers claim to have an edge over the BJP, there are concerns that the regional player JD-S would end up dividing the anti-BJP votes. The JD-S had refused to have any pre-poll pact with the Congress and it is not clear which way the regional party may tilt in the eventuality of a hung house.

Hence, the Congress managers have been projecting a figure of 130 seats at least (which was based on internal surveys) but still trying to touch the target of 150 seats given by Rahul Gandhi a year ago. During his Sunday rally in Bijapur, once a BJP stronghold, Rahul made claims to this effect saying the Congress was on the way to winning 150 seats while the BJP would be under 40 seats.

“We are confident of winning 130 seats but we should be comfortable at 145 or 150. At this number, the BJP’s tricks to break our MLAs would be rendered ineffective. If we are less than 125, the danger of poaching of MLAs would be there,” a senior AICC functionary said on condition of anonymity.

In MP, the Congress had won a simple majority in 2018 but internal differences in the state unit led former leader Jyotiraditya Scindia to join the BJP in 2020. Soon after, the Kamal Nath government fell as several MLAs loyal to Scindia went missing and then voted against the Congress, paving the way for a BJP government.

The Congress had emerged as the single largest party in Goa in 2017 but the BJP quickly sealed alliances with regional parties and formed a government. Soon after, several Congress MLAs joined the BJP. The Congress had emerged as the single largest party in Goa in 2017 but the BJP quickly sealed alliances with regional parties and formed a government. Soon after, several Congress MLAs joined the BJP.

In Arunachal Pradesh, 43 of the 44 Congress MLAs, including chief minister Pema Khandu, had joined the People’s Party of Arunachal, part of the BJP-led North-East Democratic Alliance in 2016. In Meghalaya, all the 17 MLAs of the Congress had moved to the NPP, backed by the BJP, in two batches of 12 in 2021 and 5 in 2022.