The BJP recently lost the Karnataka Assembly polls and didn’t win any of the 15 seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category. They also lost in 24 out of 36 constituencies reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates. Karnataka has 51 reserved constituencies, with 36 seats reserved for SC candidates and 15 for ST candidates. The BJP’s seat share came down to 66 from 104 in the previous elections, causing them to concede defeat. Even though the outgoing Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai increased reservation for the SC/ST community, the BJP still performed poorly in reserved seats.
The Congress won 135 seats in the 224-member state assembly, with a majority of wins in the seats reserved for SC/ST candidates. Congress candidates won 21 out of 36 SC seats, while BJP candidates won 12 and JDS won three. The Congress also won 14 out of 15 seats reserved for ST candidates, with JDS winning one seat and BJP coming in second. In the previous elections, BJP had won 22 out of 51 reserved seats.
