Karnataka   

Second largest Opposition after 1983

BANGALORE: The 13th Karnataka Legislative Assembly will have a large Opposition of 108 members in the 224-member Lower House.

It is now for the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), which constitute the main chunk of the Opposition, to show their might to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

It is another matter that neither the ruling benches nor the Opposition will have members of any great oratory skills. This will be the second largest Opposition after 1983 when the erstwhile Janata Party and the BJP-combine faced an Opposition of 111 members, including 82 from the Congress.

This time, the ruling and the Opposition are more or less equal in strength.

The BJP, which has emerged as the single largest party with 110 seats, has emerged as the ruling party with the support of six independents, while the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) will together have 108 seats (Congress 80 and JD-S 28).

The early history of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly since 1957 traces the poor show on the floor of the legislature to a weak Opposition. The Assembly was dominated by the Congress till the 1970s. In 1957, the Congress had 150 seats followed by the Republican Socialist Party (RSP) with 18 seats and 35 independents.

In 1962, the Congress had 138 seats with RSP getting 20 seats, Communist Party of India with three and independents 27.

In 1967, the Congress bagged 126 seats but the maximum strength of the house till 1972 was 216.

The Congress in the 1972 polls became the first party to capture 165 seats.

The main Opposition, National Congress Organisation (NCO) managed only 24 seats.

It was in 1978 that the strength of the Legislative Assembly was raised to 224 from 216 after a round of delimitation of the Assembly constituencies.

It is after 30 years that another round of delimitation has followed.

In 1985, the BJP entered the State Legislative Assembly with just two seats.

The Janata Party headed by former Chief Minister late Ramakrishna Hegde mopped up 139 seats, while the Congress for the first time got just 65 seats.

However, in 1989 the Congress bounced back with 178 seats, the BJP with four and the Janata Dal 24. The overwhelming mandate the Congress won in that year was one of the benchmarks in the history of Karnataka legislature.

But after this, the domination of the ruling parties began to decline while the Opposition continued to grow from strength to strength.

In the 1994 elections, the Janata Dal won 115 seats which was a simple majority. The Opposition did not make an impact as the BJP won 40 seats and the Congress 34 seats. The Karnataka Congress Party of S. Bangarappa, former Chief Minister, won 10 seats.

In 1999, the Congress bagged 132 seats while the BJP managed with 44. It was during this time that the Janata Dal split into Janata Dal (S) and Janata Dal (United) and together they won 28 seats. With the BJP set to form the Government, both Janata Dal (S) and the Congress have decided to sit in the Opposition.

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Second largest Opposition after 1983

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