Karnataka election: Why you should ignore the curious vote share matrix

No matter how much one tries to explain the vote share and seat matrix, it tends to fly out of one's head. If one looks at the history of the Karnataka elections, it is only the BJP which has a proportionate vote share and seat matrix.

In fact over the years the BJP's seats that increased has been in proportion with its vote share. In 1999, it had a 20.69 per cent vote share and 44 seats. In the 2004 elections, the party had 79 seats with a vote share of 28.3 per cent.

Now coming to the Congress. In the 1985 elections, it had a vote share of 40.8 per cent which is a high, but ended up only with 65 seats. In the 2008 polls, the BJP which got 110 seats ended up with a vote share of 33.86 per cent. In the 2004 elections when the JD(S) bagged 58 seats it had a vote share of just 20.77 per cent. In the 2008 elections the vote share of the JD(S) varied just by one per cent. It got a vote share of 19.7, but ended up with just 28 seats in 2008.

In the 1999 elections when the Congress won under S M Krishna, it bagged 132 seats with a vote share of 40.8 per cent.