New Delhi: The Congress has won 137 of Karnataka’s 224 seats, defeating incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which could manage 65 constituencies in its only south bastion.
Former Congress ally Janata Dal (Secular) won 19 seats.
The Congress’s victory – a much-needed shot in the arm since its national footprint has shrunk significantly in the last decade – was a record in terms of both seats and vote share.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge told the media this evening that this victory had ensured a “BJP-mukt Dakshin Bharat” – a jibe at the outgoing party’s oft-repeated refrain “Congress-mukt Bharat”.
The Congress ran away with the numbers as soon as counting started in the morning, crossing the halfway mark of 113 soon enough.
After the emphatic win, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said his party had fought these elections for the poor.
“We were with the poor, we fought for their issues,” Gandhi said, adding that leaders did not combat with hatred and bad words but with love.
Gandhi said Karnataka showed that it likes love. “Karnataka mein nafrat ki bazaar bandh hui hain. Mohabbat ki dukaan khuli hain (The market of hate has shut in Karnataka. Shops of love have opened),” the Congress leader told the media in New Delhi.
The Karnataka polls was the first big electoral battle between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi after the latter was convicted for defamation in March which resulted in his expulsion from the Lok Sabha in March.
Modi, who had led a high-powered election campaign, tweeted his congratulations to the Congress Saturday evening, and sent his best wishes to the party towards “fulfilling the people’s aspirations”.
He also thanked the people who supported the BJP in the Karnataka elections, saying: “I appreciate the hard work of BJP Karyakartas. We shall serve Karnataka with even more vigour in the times to come.”
Congress’s Siddaramaiah, who has made his aspirations clear to become the next chief minister, said the Prime Minister had visited the state 20 times in the run-up — the most by any PM before a Karnataka election.
Conceding defeat, BJP’s outgoing chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said the party would retrospect, re-organise and come back stronger for the Lok Sabha elections next year.
In the 2018 assembly election, the BJP had emerged as the single-largest party with 104 seats (36 per cent vote), followed by the Congress with 78 (38 per cent vote) and the Janata Dal (Secular) with 37 seats (18 per cent vote).
It can be recalled that a Congress-JD(S) combine had formed the government in 2018 but was toppled by the BJP after 14 months due to defections.