123 Karnataka Assembly poll winners secured less than 50% votes: Report

New Delhi: The Karnataka Assembly polls saw 55 percent of the winners getting less than 50 percent of the votes while five winners registered victory with a margin of less than 1,000 votes, a report prepared by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Friday.

It said 123 of 222 winners secured victory with less than 50 percent of votes polled in their constituency in the May 12 assembly elections. The elections in two constituencies namely Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwari Nagar were then deferred/countermanded.

Out of these 123, 53 are from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 48 from Congress, 19 from Janata Dal-Secular and one each from Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), while one is an independent candidate.

The top three winners who attained the least vote share during the elections are Anjali Hemant Nimbalkar and Yashvantharaygouda Vittalagouda Patil (both Congress) and D.S. Suresh (BJP) with 24, 30 and 30 percent vote share respectively.

As per the report, 99 (45 percent) winners won with 50 percent and above of the total votes polled in their constituency. Three of the top winners who attained the highest vote shares in the elections are R. Akhanda Srinivasamurthy, D.K. Shivakumar ( both Congress) and Ashwath Narayan (BJP) who get 77, 69 and 67 percent vote share, respectively.

The report, by the ADR and Karnataka Election Watch, said five of the 222 winners registered victory with less than 1,000 votes. 

Pratap Gowda Patil won with 213 votes, Venkataramanappa with 409, Basanagouda Patil with 555, Channabasappa Satyappa Shivalli with 634 and Guttedar Subhash Jemmayya with 697 votes. 

It said there has been 41 percent increase in the number of political parties compared to those contesting in 2013. A number of 83 political parties -- including six national, eight state and 69 registered unrecognised -- participated in 2018 Karnataka Assembly polls while 59 political parties were in the fray in 2013. 

The voter turnout this year was 74 percent as compared to 71 percent in 2013. 

The report said 44 (57 percent) out of 77 winners with declared criminal cases have won with a vote share of 50 percent while 95 (44 percent) out 215 crorepati winners have won with a vote share of 50 percent and above. It said 18 out of 215 crorepati winners have won against a non-crorepati runner-up.

All the winners of the Karnataka Assembly elections won with an average of 36 per cent of the total registered voters. This implies that the winners represent on an average, 36 per cent of the total electorate. In 2013, the figure was 32 per cent. 

Out of 104 winners of BJP, 69 (66 per cent) have won less than 40 per cent of votes of the total registered voters in the constituency. Sixty-one (78 per cent) out of 78 winners from Congress, 15 (39 per cent) out of 38 winners from JD(S), 1 (100 per cent) winner each from KPJP and BSP have won less than 40 per cent of votes of the total registered voters in the constituency.

Out of total 94 re-elected winners, none have won with less than 32 per cent of vote share in their respective constituency while 45 (48 per cent) have won with more than 50 per cent of vote share. A number of 21 (22 per cent) re-elected winners have won with less than 5 percent of margin of victory whereas seven have won with more than 30 percent of margin of victory.

The NOTA button initiated by the Election Commission in 2013 gave the voters an option of rejecting all the candidates in their constituency. The total number of votes polled for none-of-the-above option were 3,22,841 during the elections. 

Out of total votes polled for NOTA, 22 per cent (70,941 votes) of votes were polled in 55 red alert constituencies where three or more candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.