New Delhi: After his party’s emphatic win in Karnataka Saturday, 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 hiu 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.
#WATCH | "Karnataka mein Nafrat ki bazaar band hui hai, Mohabbat ki dukaan khuli hai": Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on party's thumping victory in #KarnatakaPolls pic.twitter.com/LpkspF1sAz
— ANI (@ANI) May 13, 2023
The Karnataka polls on 10 May was the first big electoral battle between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi after the latter was convicted in a criminal defamation case in March and expelled from the Lok Sabha as a result.
The party’s win is also being seen as a victory for Gandhi’s Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir “Bharat Jodo Yatra” which he undertook from September last year to January 2023.
Though votes were still being counted, the Congress was on course to getting nearly 140 constituencies in the 224-seat assembly.
The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was the single-largest party in 2018 with 104 seats, got a little over 60 seats. Anti-incumbency and frequent charges of corruption worked against the outgoing party, though a host of top leaders — led by Narendra Modi — had descended on the campaign trail. Modi came 20 times, Congress leader Siddaramaiah said after the win.
Congress’s former ally Janata Dal (Secular) is likely to get around 20 seats.
The 2023 elections had seen a voter turnout of 73.19 per cent, the highest-ever recorded in the history of elections in the state.
Also read: Victory and defeat aren’t new to BJP, will introspect setback: Yediyurappa on Karnataka polls