Factionalism did the BJP in

HUBLI: Before the legislative council polls, BJP leaders in Hubli-Dharwad were supremely confident of winning the two seats at stake. RDPR minister Jagadish Shettar had even stated that the Congress would be routed after the polls. However, Monday's counting threw up a surprise to the saffron party leaders: they lost one seat to the Congress. Party nominee and former MLC Shivaraj Sajjanar won, while the other candidate, M R Patil, had to lose.Srinivas Mane of the Congress won.
What went wrong with BJP?
Any leader who has spent considerable time in the party, says differences between leaders of various factions have led to such results. ``There is a vertical division in the party. One faction is led by leaders like Ashok Katwe who are CM B S Yeddyurappa's loyalists. The second is led by RDPR minister Jagadish Shettar, who is identified with the Reddy group. The two factions don't work together. Interaction between the factions is limited too, said a senior leader.
The council poll campaign was not any different as party candidates Shivaraj Sajjanar and M R Patil owed allegiance to different camps.
MIXED MESSAGES
When the party decided to field candidates from both seats in Dharwad, the high command sent a message to its workers: see that both candidates win. This, the senior leaders had thought, would be achieved by asking voters in Dharwad and Gadag to cast their first-preference vote for Patil and give their second-preference vote to the other candidate, Sajjanar. However, voters in Haveri were asked to cast their first-preference vote to Sajjanar and second-preference vote to Patil. Party leaders had calculated that this would provide enough votes to both candidates, and take them to the victory line. Since Haveri has nearly 60% of the votes, this technique would also balance the votes received in Dharwad and Gadag.
However, this complex message did not reach the voters, due to infighting in the party. Leaders of one faction did not bother about the other faction getting votes or not. ``Leaders told us that we had to mark our first-preference votes for Patil and forget about the second-preference,'' a voter in Dharwad district said. Similar opinions were heard from voters in Gadag and Haveri. Since each faction worried about its own fortunes, the ruling party succeeded in getting only one candidate elected. Hectic campaigning and unhindered poll expenditure do not seem to have helped.
ALLIANCE DID NOT WORK
It also seems that the Congress-JD(S) alliance, that worked wonders for both parties elsewhere in the state, did not achieve its end in Dharwad district. This is evident from the fact that of the 3,302 votes that Mane got, 1,213 had no second-preference marked on them. Claims of Congress and JD(S) leaders that they would ensure that voters don't vote for a third party, turned out to be false.
HOW WERE THE VOTES COUNTED?
Counting in two-member constituencies is far more complicated than that in single-member constituencies. A value is fixed for each vote and the win is decided by a statistical quota.
Of the 7,355 electors, 7,320 turned up to vote. Of these, 410 were invalid. Of the 6,910 votes, each was given a value of 100.
Of the 6,91,000 valued votes, the winning margin was fixed at 2,30,334.
Mane got 3,30,200 in the first round and was declared elected. Of his total votes, 2,08,900 had second-preference votes. After they were segregated, Sajjanar got 41,877 valued votes and was declared elected.