ISAS Briefs

The Karnataka state assembly elections were held in May 2008. The principal opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which led the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) (the national coalition government) from 1999 to 2004, won to form its first government in a southern state. The result is important because it has broad implications for the political prospects of the ruling Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition government in the general elections due by May 2009. In this brief, the Karnataka elections will be analysed at two levels: first, the elections themselves at the state level and, second, their possible implications for the UPA at the national elections.