new delhi the karnataka assembly polls would be the first of the four semifinals between the bjp and the congress before the 2024 general elections and the notion of a sympathy factor for the grand old party post the disqualification of rahul gandhi from the lok sabha would also be put to test in the highstakes contestfour assembly elections karnataka rajasthan madhya pradesh and chhattisgarh are scheduled for this year in which the bjp and the congress are in a direct contest and they would set the tone for the 2024 lok sabha pollsthe four states together have 93 lok sabha seats which account for 17 per cent of its total strength but they are close to 50 per cent of about 190 seats where bjp and congress were in a direct fight in 2019 lok sabha pollsin karnataka the congress vote share rose marginally to 38 per cent in the 2018 assembly elections from 366 per cent in 2013 but its tally fell from 122 to 78 on the other hand bjps vote share was marginally lower than that of congress but at 362 per cent it recorded the highest so far and also managed to bag more seats at 104 though it fell short of nine seats for a comfortable majority in a house of 224 the bjp had won 40 seats in 2013 state electionsthe bjp currently has 119 seats followed by the congress with 75 the jd s has 28 mlas while two seats are vacantexperts feel that the polls in karnataka will indicate which way the political wind is blowing but one should not get carried away by the result as the issues at play in elections in states and at the national level differsanjay k pandey political commentator and professor at the jawaharlal nehru university jnu said the karnataka polls would be the first of the four semifinals before 2024 polls he however also cautioned not to read too much in the results as state polls are often guided by different issuesmore than the bjp it is a test for the congress as to whether it can put up a spirited fight before the 2024 finale pandey told ptithe contest in karnataka is largely between the bjp and the congress but jds in the past has proven to be a crucial cog in the political wheelfor the congress in karnataka it has been hitting the right notes after the passage of the bharat jodo yatra last year despite the looming shadow of simmering tensions between chief ministerial hopefuls siddaramaiah and d k shivakumarthe party has organised a statewide bus tour called praja dhwani yatra jointly led by party state unit president shivakumar and leader of the opposition in the state assembly siddaramaiahthe congress has described the bharat jodo yatra as a booster dose but whether it will provide the party a new lease of life in electionbound states such as karnataka is a milliondollar questionanother crucial aspect would be whether the congress