Congress wins Karnataka; BJP slips to third place

Wednesday, 08/05/2013

http://punjabnewsline.com/news/Congress-takes-early-lead-in-Karnataka.html

BANGALORE: Congress seems to be all set to form government in Karnataka after a gap of seven years. The party emerged as an absolute majority with 117 seats leaving the ruling BJP far behind with less than 40 seats in the 225-member assembly.

The vote count for elections held Sunday, started this morning.

The Karnataka victory will come as a great breather for the Congress which is battling the opposition onslaught at the centre over the issues of corruption and interference into the coal-gate probe by the union law minister. The party can seek solace from a good victory in Karnataka.

As the votes were being counted, the BJP appeared set for a humiliating rout in the state where it came to power five years ago.

Congress workers celebrated wildly in Bangalore, bursting firecrackers.

For the BJP it was actually a double whammy. As on the one hand it faced the anti-incumbency due to the corruption and inefficiency of its government and on the other hand the division of its votes after

the formation of a separate party, the Karnataka Janata Party by its former Chief Minister BS Yedyruppa which took quite a number of votes enough to ensure BJP candidate’s defeat at several places.

In New Delhi the party Spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad after admitting the defeat claimed that the BJP had paid the price for sticking to its principles with an obvious reference that it had to drop Yedyruppa on corruption charges who formed a separate party and engineered BJP’s defeat.

Congress strongman in Karnataka Siddharamiah was sanguine in victory. "It was only expected," said the man who could be the next chief minister.

Meanwhile, BJP leader and former Chief Minister Sadanand Gowda said, "We have not been able to rise to the occasion. We could not reach out to the voter with whatever development work we did in Karnataka."

Even Janata Dal-S (JD-S) was ahead with 41 seats while BJP was way behind with 36 seats.

During five years of ruling, BJP saw three chief ministers and found itself split right down the middle with BS Yeddyurappa forming his own party.

Yeddyurappa’s Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) made its political debut with 9 seats.

For Congress which is battling opposition offensive over grant charges in New Delhi and BJP demanding resignations of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar, the victory was a morale boost ahead of 2014 general elections.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, "We are winning because people have seen through and rejected the BJP."

For the BJP, the election result was a sharp fall from five years ago when it won 110 seats and formed its first government in the south with the help of five independents.The party lost badly both in rural and urban areas.

BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy said,"We have lost the election. And it is time for introspection."

The assembly has 224 elected and one nominated members. The election took place Sunday for 223 seats as election was cancelled in one constituency after the BJP candidate died.