Providing a nail-biting finish to the high-pitched Karnataka Assembly elections, Jayanagar constituency, where 16 votes separated the winner and the loser, became a talking point. As many as eight seats were decided by wafer-thin margins of less than 1,000 votes with the Congress and the BJP having five and three such victories, respectively.
In the run-up to the elections, observers had pointed out multiple reasons for the contests to heat up resulting in close contests and lower margins. Eventually, Gandhinagar (105 votes), Sringeri (201 votes), Malur (248 votes), and Kumta (676 votes) were among the five constituencies that witnessed close contests apart from Jayanagar. This apart, the BJP also won four constituencies by narrow margins that were between 1,000 votes and 2,000 votes.
As many as 42 seats, out of the 224, went to the wires with the outcome decided by less than 5,000 votes. In 2018, in contrast, 30 seats had been decided by votes less than 5,000, including five seats won with a wafer-thin margin of less than 1,000 votes.
