BJP Concedes Defeat in Karnataka, Congress Heading for a Clear Win

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday accepted BJP’s defeat in the state Assembly polls. The trends of counting showed that the Congress was leading in 134 seats, the ruling BJP was far behind with leads in 66 seats, and the Janata Dal (S) managed to leads in 22 seats.

Speaking to newspersons at 12.20 pm, the Karnataka CM said, “We have not been able to make the mark. The Congress is able to make the mark. We will do a detailed analysis. As a national political party, we will analyse and see what the gaps are and improve upon it. We will take this result in our stride, and we will re-organise the party for the 2024 elections.”

Former chief minister Siddaramaiah said the Congress can cross 130 seats. And that the results were on expected lines. “It is a big victory for the Congress. People of Karnataka wanted change because they were fed up with the BJP,” he said.

The congress leader recalled that in 2008 or 2018, there was no mandate for the BJP. They spent lot of money on Operation Lotus each time to fish MLAs from other parties.

“People of Karnataka are mature and know which party would save the state because there was a threat by the BJP to the secular fabric of the country. There was hate politics and communal politics, ” he added.

Congress leader and another contender for the chief minister’s position, D K Shivkumar said, “We were always confident that we would have victory, I am talking of our confidence and not Exit polls.”

By 12.30 pm, it was clear that the Congress had secured 42.94 per cent vote share, the BJP 36.1 per cent, and the Janata Dal (S) secured 13.15 per cent. Analysts said the Congress vote share had increased at the cost of the JD (S).