BENGALURU/NEW DELHI, 13 May: The Congress on Saturday made a stunning comeback in Karnataka ousting the BJP from its lone southern citadel with a comfortable majority in a morale booster win that will be key for reviving its electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress’ decisive victory in the Assembly elections after an aggressive pro-poor campaign spearheaded by mass leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president D K Shivakumar also saw Karnataka continuing with a 38-year-old anti-incumbency trend. The state has never voted an incumbent party to power since 1985.
Siddaramaiah, 75, and Shivakumar, the party’s trouble shooter who won from Kanakapura by over one lakh votes and who turns 61 on Sunday, are both front runners for the chief minister’s post. The Congress has returned to power on its own in Karnataka after 10 years. Siddaramaiah was the chief minister from 2013 to 2018.
The first meeting of the Congress Legislature Party(CLP) will be held at 5.30 pm on Sunday, according to AICC in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala. The meeting is likely to decide the name of the new chief minister.
Helped by a nearly five per cent vote swing in its favour, the Congress with a vote share of 42.88 per cent bagged 135 out of the 224 seats at stake and was leading in one, according to Election Commission data at 9 pm. The magic mark is 113. It was also the Congress’ best-ever performance in Karnataka since 1999 when the party won 132 seats. The party bagged 80 seats in the 2018 elections with a vote share of 38 per cent.
Of the six regions in the state, the Congress swept the Old Mysuru, Mumbai Karnataka, Hyderabad Karnataka and Central Karnataka regions. The BJP managed to retain its hold only in Coastal Karnataka while it was a mixed bag in Bengaluru.
Though its vote share decreased only marginally from 36.2 per cent to 36 per cent, the BJP’s seat tally slumped to 65 from 104 in 2018. It was the second loss for the BJP after Himachal Pradesh in December last year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Congress for its win and wished the party best in its endeavour to fulfilling people’s aspirations.(PTI)
