BJP takes top spot in Karnataka Assembly, but behind Congress in vote share

The BJP secured 36.2 percent of the votes in the Karnataka Assembly elections for which results were announced on Tuesday while the Congress had the backing of 38 percent of the electorate. The JDS was preferred by 18.3 percent of the voters and the remaining 7.5 percent votes were cast in favour of other parties, independents and NOTA.
Karnataka had ended up with a hung Assembly after results were declared on Tuesday for 222 seats which went to polls on May 12. The Congress which came second by winning 78 seats and the Janata Dal Secular (JDS) and its pre-poll ally Bhaujan Samaj Party with 37 and one victories each have come together to stake claim to form the next government in Karnataka. On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has 104 MLAs, is accusing the Congress-JDS-BSP combine of going against the verdict and trying to form a government using dirty tricks.
But even as the BJP came on top in terms of the number of seats won, the party is still at the second position when it comes to the vote share. The Congress is the biggest party as far as vote share is concerned and the JDS is third.
According to the Election Commission of India data, the BJP contested in all the 222 seats and secured 36.2 percent of the votes while the Congress had the backing of 38 percent of the electorate. The JDS was preferred by 18.3 percent of the voters and the remaining 7.5 percent votes were cast in favour of other parties, independents and NOTA.
Out of the 222 constituencies for which voting was held and results declared, the Congress and JDS had contested 220 and 201 respectively.
But the BJP vote share has come from the high 43.37 percent in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when the party had won 17 seats out of the 28. The Congress was on the second spot with 41.15 percent of the votes and nine wins while the JDS came third with 11.07 percent vote share and two seats.
Compared to the last Karnataka Assembly elections in 2013, the BJP has seen its vote share almost double. In 2013, the BJP had just 19.89 percent of the votes and 40 wins while the Congress had secured a majority by winning 122 seats and 36.59 percent of the votes. The JDS, too, had 40 seats in its kitty and its vote share too was more than the BJP at 20.19 percent.
In the 2013 elections, BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa had his own outfit which bagged six seats securing a vote share of 9.79 percent. The other smaller parties and independents won in 16 constituencies and had a combined vote share of 13.54 percent.