For what can the epoch making victory of the BJP opening doors to it to the South of Vindhyas be attributed to? In one sentence it is the triumph of the party's superior electoral strategy and its ability to sell itself to the people against all odds.

Just imagine over six months back, when its opportunistic alliance with the Janata Dal was breaking up with former Prime Minister and Janata Dal(S) supremo H.D.Deve Gowda determined to deny the BJP a chance to run a government, its Chief Minister-in-waiting even embarrassed his own party leadership by .D.Deve Howda H.
working out a secret deal. That deal struck by B.S.Yeddyurappa with Gowda's son, H.D.Kumaraswamy did not even last a week, and there was worry among the party leadership that the advantage it had gained when initially Gowda deprived them a chance, had been lost.

Yet, the BJP strategists managed to overcome this embarrassment and launched a massive propaganda campaign about them having been betrayed. The master stroke of course came from its Prime Minister-in-waiting L.K.Advani when he at the beginning of the campaign made an appeal to give his party also a chance. And equally importantly he declared that they would not form a government in alliance with JD(S), if it did not get a majority.

Both these announcements caught the imagination of the voters, and the result is before us. Of course, one very important factor which has propelled BJP to the verge of power in Karnataka is the almost total consolidation of the lingayat votes in its favour. By successfully erasing the power-monger image of Yeddyurappa and projecting him unequivocally as the Chief Ministerial candidate, it managed to lure the long-deprived lingayats with promise of power. The last lingayat Chief Minister was J.H.Patel, who also had not really managed to consolidate the community. Yeddyurappa has now managed to do what Veerendra Patil had done for the Congress, in 1989, by bringing in the lingayats.

BJP's success also has to be attributed, though it would not accept it, to the enormous money power it managed to garner though both the Mining lobby as well as the real estate lobby.

The power of the Bellary mining lobby was evident in central and Hyderabad-Karnataka region, where it made very impressive gains. It virtually swept both Bellary and Davanagere district, where the money power of the party was nakedly evident. It also performed better than expected in Bangalore city, where some of the real estate mafia were even the party's candidates.

It is however significant to note that the party refrained from making hindutva a major issue, though the wide campaign undertaken by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, did have its impact though he was also much more subtle than he was in his own home State. The party actually did not feel the need for a high pitched hindutva campaign, as it had done a lot of ground work silently over the last four years.

The party also failed pretty miserably to communicate to the people the achievements of its Government at the Centre, and even a populist measure like the massive loan waiver to the farmers, never became a serious talking point among the farmers. Its appeal, a little late in coming, to give it a majority just failed to carry conviction, simply because different party leaders had their own calculations.

Yet for the party to have won more seats and more percentage of votes, than in 2004, is attributable to two factors. One is the decline of the Janata Dal(S), which resulted in Congress without much effort sharing some of the spoils, though BJP has obviously gained more from it. However the second factor is more significant and holds promise to the future. That is the Siddaramaiah factor, The OBC leader who was thrown out by Gowda and joined Congress after some reluctance, has turned out to be the most important acquisition.

Going by the results the kuruba (shepherd) leader has virtually done a Mayawati in his home district of Mysore and its neighbouring Chamarajanagar, by winning 12 out of the 15 seats. The significance of this victory can be gauged by the fact that Congress had won just two seats here in 2004. So not only did Siddaramaiah carry the entire OBC and dalit as well as significant sections of Muslims here to Congress, he virtually decimated the Janata Dal(S) in the two districts, where it had won 10 seats last time. If one has to find a hero among Congress men in this hour of defeat it is Siddaramaiah for them.

Meanwhile the results are a major setback to Gowda and sons, who were hoping to play a kingmaker and probably be the king too. It has been proved that Gowda's blunder of chasing leaders like Siddaramaiah, P.G.R.Sindhia, M.P.Prakash, and C.M.Ibrahim among others out of the party and relying only on his two sons, was a grave blunder. His party has now ended up as expected as a vokkaliga party. And now without power in their hands, how long their fellow caste-men will stay is a matter of conjecture.

BJP meanwhile can gloat over its victory brought about by its superior strategy, though how stable and strong its Government, with a razor thin majority, will be is quite another matter.