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BENGALURU/NEW DELHI — 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.
Helped by a nearly five per cent vote swing in its favour, the Congress with a vote share of 42.88 per cent won 135 out of the 224 seats at stake and was leading in one, according to Election Commission data at 11.45 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.
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.
The JD(S) managed to win only 19 seats, down from 37 in the previous election.
Two independent candidates also won in the election. Apart from it, Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha won one seat each.
Meanwhile, the results of Jayanagar constituency in Bengaluru are still pending after the Election Commission ordered recounting of postal ballots where Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy has a slender lead over BJP's C K Ramamurthy.
Following the defeat, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the party could not make the mark “in spite of a lot of effort put in by everyone, including the prime minister and workers of the party".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Congress for its win and wished the party best in its endeavour to fulfilling people's aspirations.
"I am happy we contested the Karnataka polls without using hate, bad language. We fought the polls with love. In Karnataka, the market of hate ('nafrat ka bazaar’) has closed down and shops of love ('mohabbat ki dukaanein') opened," said former party chief Rahul Gandhi.
“This is the victory of ‘janata janardhan’,” Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge Kharge said, adding, “All our leaders have worked unitedly and people have voted for our guarantees."
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.
Former chief minister Siddaramaiah, 75, and KPCC president D K Shivakumar, 61, who spearheaded an aggressive pro-poor campaign, are both front runners for the chief minister's post.
Congress' empathic win came as a much needed psychological booster for the party ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections, firming up its position as the ruling BJP's principal challenger, and ending the recent cycle of electoral losses.