As per the latest trends, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading in 105 seats, while the Congress is ahead in 76 seats. The Janata Dal (Secular), which is emerging as the tie-breaker, is leading in 39 seats.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has lost from Chamundeshwari to JD(S) candidate GT Deve Gowda, but won the Badami constituency, beating BJP’s Sriramulu. The party’s controversial MLA NA Harris has retained his Shanti Nagar seat.
BJP chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa and JD(S) state chief HD Kumaraswamy are heading to victories in Shikaripura and Ramanagaram, respectively. Interestingly, the Congress has the highest vote share so far at 38%, while the BJP is at 36.7%.
KARNATAKA RESULTS: CONGRESS BACKS KUMARASWAMY FOR CM
-“The BJP is exploring options for sure but to form majority. But you need 112 seats which is yet to be achieved,” says Congress leader Sanjay Jha as BJP leads in 105 seats.
– “Credit goes to the hard work of PM Modi and Amit Shah ji, as well as state leadership,party workers and RSS cadre. BJP’s southward march has begun,” said Ram Madhav, leader BJP.
-“Rahul Gandhi did his best, but it is we who have lost the elections. We, the local leadership, should have en-cashed it in a proper way & because of which we lost it,” said DK Shivkumar, Karnataka Minister on results.
– The Karnataka election results will now set the tone for more battles later this year in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, and the national election in 2019.
– BJP Parliamentary Board to meet at 6 pm at party headquarters in Delhi today.
– As expected the Lingayats backed the BJP fully because of their caste leader Yeddyurappa and the Vokkaligas supported the JDS in large numbers. The BJP getting Reddy brothers on board also seems to have worked in favour of the saffron party.
– To counter Congress’ Kannada pride, the BJP also deftly played the Kannada card. Both Modi and Shah quoted extensively from Kannada literature and even visited several memorials of Kannada icons during their campaign trail.
-The Karnataka Assembly election result could lend a major boost to the Mamata Banerjee’s attempts to forge a national anti-BJP alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. In March, she had camped in Delhi for three days and met several opposition leaders from the Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar.
-) With BJP just a few seats away from winning Karnataka again, the Congress will have a lot to think about. It will also prove to a huge blow to Rahul Gandhi’s assertion that BJP’s losing streak will begin right here from Karnataka.