Karnataka election results moral defeat for PM Modi, Shah — AJP

GUWAHATI — As the Congress is poised to win power in Karnataka, ousting the BJP from its only southern perch on Saturday, Assam Jatiya Parishad said it is the “moral defeat” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah who led the saffron party’s election campaign there.

AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi congratulated the Congress for its performance in Karnataka and said “people of the southern state voted against spiralling inflation and unemployment”.

“The prime minister and the union home minister had personally steered the BJP’s campaign there but the election results indicate that it is a moral defeat for them,” Gogoi said.

AJP general secretary Jagadish Bhuyan said people have given a “befitting reply to the BJP’s politics of polarisation”.

The “failure” of the BJP government in the state and the “alleged corruption charges” against Karnakata Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai led to “disillusionment among the electorates and they voted against the saffron party”, said the AJP, one of the opposition parties in Assam.

The Congress was winning or leading in 136 of the 224 assembly seats in Karnataka, comfortably over the magic number of 113, and the BJP in 64, according to the latest trends on the Election Commission website. The JD-S, which was hoping to be kingmaker, won 18 constituencies and was leading in two.