On May 13, 2023, results for the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections were announced. Congress emerged as the single largest party with 135 seats. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 66 seats. A total of 917 independent candidates contested the Assembly elections, and two of them, Latha Mallikarjun and K Puttaswamy Gowda, won from Harapanahalli and Gauribidanur, respectively. Eleven of the independent candidates were runner-up.
Only 19 saved deposit
Out of 917 independent candidates, only 19 managed to save their deposits. Every candidate contesting elections in India must deposit Rs 10,000 at the time of the nomination. The money is returned only if they secure 1/6 of the total casted votes. It discourages those who contest elections just to get a little fame and have no intentions of working for the public.
A total of 898 independent candidates lost their deposits in these elections. Only 32 of these 898 candidates got more than 1 per cent votes. Furthermore, only 54 of them got over 1,000 votes, and only 112 got between 500 to 999 votes. The remaining 732 candidates got under 500 votes, and 132 of them got less than 100 votes. J Ashoka from Hosakote was the worst performer and got only 13 votes.
BJP candidates suffered close defeats on seats where rebel leaders filed as independent candidates
One of the biggest shockers came from Puttur for BJP. Congress’s candidate Ashok Kumar Rai won the seat against independent candidate Arun Kumar Puthila. While Rai got 66,607 votes, Puthila got 62,458 votes. BJP’s candidate Ashha Thimmappa got 36,733 votes. In 2018, BJP’s Sanjeeva Matandoor won the seat with 90,073 votes against Shakunthala Shetty of Congress, who got 70,595 votes with a margin of 19,477 votes.
Puthila is a Sangh leader. He was expecting to get a ticket from BJP, but the ticket for the Puttur constituency went to Thimmappa. Irked by the party’s decision, Puthila announced he would contest elections independently. Sangh and BJP leaders requested him to withdraw his nomination, but he did not agree. As a result, the votes that were supposed to go to BJP got divided.
Suppose, if BJP had decided to give the ticket to Puthila or he decided to withdraw his nomination, a mere 4,000 votes swing from the existing BJP candidate would have resulted in the victory of the saffron party. Alas, it did not happen.
Puthila was not the only independent rebel candidate that caused BJP a seat. From Gandhi Nagar, Krisshnaian Setty ES EN Maluru got 6,871 votes. Earlier, he was a BJP leader but decided to contest the election as an independent. BJP’s AR Sapthagiri Gowda secured 54,103 votes, and the winning candidate of Congress, Dinesh Gundu Rao, got 54,118. The difference between BJP and Congress candidates was only 105 votes.
From the Malur constituency, Hoodi Vijayakumar, a former BJP leader, contested the election as an independent. He secured 49,362 votes. The runner-up on this seat, BJP’s KS Manjunatha Gowda, got 50,707 votes. Congress’ JY Nanje Gowda won the seat with 50,955 votes. The difference between BJP and Congress candidates was only 248 votes.
Dr Vishwanath I Patil from the Bailhongal constituency is a former BJP leader. He contested as an independent and secured 25,060 votes. BJP leader Jagdish Metud secured 55,630 votes and lost to Congress candidate Mahantesh Koujalagi who secured 58,408 votes. The difference was only 2,778 votes.
HM Gopikrishna, a BJP leader, decided to contest the election from the Tarikere constituency and secured 35,468 votes. BJP’s DS Suresh secured 50,955 and lost to Congress’s GH Srinivasa, who secured 63,086 votes. He lost by a margin of 12,131 votes. DS Suresh (44,940 votes) won from the Tarikere constituency against GH Srinivasa (32,253 votes) in 2018 by a margin of 11,687 votes. Srinivasa was an independent candidate at that time and Congress’s SM Nagaraju could secure only 20,404 votes. This year, Congress fielded Srinivasa who votes from his followers and Congress followers combined.
In 2017, Gopikrishna was with BJP but decided to contest the election as an independent candidate in 2018. He had secured 29,663 votes at that time. He again contested against BJP this year and made a huge impact as DS Suresh got marginally higher votes compared to 2018.
Congress won Gandhi Nagar, Malur and Bailhongal constituencies in 2018. However, the total of BJP-leaning independent and BJP candidates show that BJP might have won these seats this year.
