Congress' Lingayat card may not pay off

Bengaluru: With three weeks to go to poll day on May 12, a JAIN-Lokniti CSDS pre-poll survey conducted in mid-April 2018, shows the electorate in Karnataka more or less evenly divided between the Congress and the BJP, with the Congress projected as facing a startling drop from 122 seats down to 85-91, and the BJP which had won 40 seats in 2013, just ahead with 89-95 seats. 

A critical element of the Congress strategy in this election was the move to accord a minority religion status to the Lingayats-Veerashaivas. 

The survey shows that the Congress may secure a smaller percentage of Lingayat vote as compared to what it received in the 2013 Assembly polls. Thus, a key gamble of the Congress may not pay off at the present moment.