Whoever won Karnataka has lost next Lok Sabha elections

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: PTI

NEW DELHI: There has been a strange trend in Karnataka in the past that whoever has formed the government in the southern state has lost the next Lok Sabha election. When BJP chief Amit Shah was asked about it, he said it's a superstition and suggested that the Congress was in both the Centre and Karnataka in 1967. If history is to be traced, when the Congress won majority in Karnataka in 2013, it lost the general elections the following year. The BJP formed the government in the state in 2008 but was defeated by the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government at the Centre in 2009. The Janata Dal (Secular) formed a coalition government in 2004 assembly elections but the party faced rout in Lok Sabha elections held in the same year. Even in the year 1994 when the JD(S) emerged victorious by winning 115 seats in Karnataka but lost in the 1998 general elections. The Congress conquered Karnataka with a brute majority in 1989 by winning 178 seats but could not retain power in the Centre as the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress lost the Lok Sabha elections and VP Singh formed the National Front government. It is said that the history repeats itself. But if what happened in the recent past in Karnataka gets repeated this time around, the BJP will have to face a tough time ahead or can the saffron party break this jinx and set things straight? Well, Karnataka is all set to go to polls on Saturday and everything will get cleared by May 15 when the results of the will be declared.