Message from Karnataka Voters

A lot has been said after the results to elections held in Karnataka have been declared. Our prediction in the previous post was awfully wrong. Though JD(S) did get the second spot, albeit shared with BJP.

KJP lost the elections very badly, but achieved its goal (of decimating the BJP) quite effectively. BJP has to merely console itself that KJP fared so badly.

Vote-share analysts are saying that if BJP, KJP and BRC had remained united, they would have fared much better, though they still would have lost.

A hand-waving approximation would be that those loyal to Congress remained loyal to Congress, ditto JD(S), while erstwhile BJP loyalists were either confused or dejected or both.

So the real message of the voters from Karnataka is: We remained loyal to our respective parties, if you confused us you lost because of our confusion. Of course we did not mean that not even a single voter changed his voting loyalty, what we meant is that on an average the voter did not change his loyalty.

A very detailed analysis of elections and voter psychology is beyond our pay cheque, nonetheless the outcome makes one point very very clear: Those who sing glories of "wisdom" of the Indian voters and those who celebrate the "collective wisdom of democracy" are either too naive or too treasonous.

For, despite Giga-scams happening under Congress government at the centre, if the loyal voter still votes for Congress, then it shows that voting has become an act of faith and loyalty, and not reason and careful observation. Now, we are NOT against people having faith, it is just that we would like someone else's faith decide for us, and vice versa.

Also, if voter behaviour is going to be largely determined by loyalty, then non-Congress parties will be fooling themselves if they imagine that the next general elections will be a cake walk for the anti-Congress.