Karnataka ULB poll results in graphics

Results of the elections to urban local bodies in Karnataka have just been announced.

And with loads of data at my disposal, seemed like a good time to play around with graphics and some of the online tools I've chanced upon recently.

Given that the BJP government has been in power in the State for the last five years, its lacklustre performance and the good showing by the opposition Congress is being read as the tide turning. Especially with State elections just a couple of months away.

Yes, there's a mandate for the Congress, but this graphic seems to suggest a more drastic loss for the BJP and the Janata Dal (S), the BJP's ex-alliance partner.

The total number of seats up for grabs is 4976. Results have been declared for 4952 (Tardal with 23 seats boycotted the elections; no nominations were filed for one seat in Chickballapur).

Among the seven city corporations that went to polls:


No party has got a majority in the Mysore City Corporation council. (This one was easy, I don't get bragging rights.)


More to follow as I get around to doing it!

Update: Some more elections visualisations (definitely more expert-like!)

• Congress tipped for major gains in forthcoming Assembly elections.
• Visualising Karnataka ULB polls (love the map!)

Election funding (just thinking aloud really)

Free TVs for votes, free fans for no votes, flip-flop politics and missing polity - there's little about recent politics that isn't greeted with cynicism or disgust.

At a recent debate on NDTV's We The People about an increasingly dysfunctional Parliament, one of the suggestions made to end the mammoth quibbles and get things done, was to allow MPs to vote on (most) policy matters independently.

The argument was that allowing an MP to vote against his party on a policy matter would enable him to better represent the interests of his immediate constituency. The electorate too would have something definite by which to judge the performance of their representative.

It's an idea that's almost perfect on paper.

In anything other than theory, it's terrifying.

The Election Commission of India allows a candidate to spend Rs. 25 lakh on his/her campaign for the General Election. A widely reported study by the Centre for Media Studies, however, suggests that as much as Rs.10,000 crore was spent during the 2009 elections (pdf), with "conservative estimates" putting the figure at Rs. 3 crore per candidate.

This picture definitely has a lobbyist waiting to make sure that the candidate turns into an MP, that too one with a valuable independent vote.

Yes, we have our Radias, the farm and fertilizer lobbies, but I'd hate to see it reach the hysteric proportions it is wont to.

At a time when corruption is the dirtiest word in the country, it was interesting to see something a little related to this discussion pan out on the other side of the globe.  Lawrence Lessig, once free culture advocate and now anti-corruption crusader in Washington DC (and all-round awesome guy) talks to Jon Stewart.

Election vouchers? Hmm.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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